Black Dragon
by CJ - Lady of Gryffindor
Summary: InuYasha forced Kagome home and sealed the well. Six months pass plagued by nightmares of Kagome being devoured by a Black Dragon, he reopens the well, not even his nightmares can compare to the horrific reality of what her life has become.VERY VERY DARK!
1. Scroll I

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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**Warning: This fiction is a HUGE departure from my usual works. It is very graphic and dark, containing unpleasant sexual situations and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.**

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Prologue 

Kagome stood by the well her eyes bathed in a wash of tears. No matter how she pleaded and begged, he wouldn't listen to her.

"What about what I want InuYasha? Doesn't that matter to you at all?"

"It matters more than you know Kagome, kami, this is killing me too. Please understand…please…I saw what happened to my mother. Watched them break her heart and her spirit a piece at a time. Do you think I could stand to watch them destroy you too? Do you honestly think I will let them destroy you the way they destroyed her? Knowing it is because of me?"

"Then come with me…"she pleaded, her eyes tore at every part of him.

"And what? Force you to hide with me? Live being dependent on your family? If there was anyway Kagome…"

"There is! We can be together! I don't care about any of that…you're the only one who cares about that. Please listen to me InuYasha…"

He pulled her tightly into his arms, crushing her against him.

"You deserve someone as amazing as you are Kagome. A normal life, normal friends. You should be going to school and taking those tests, going to those moving picture things like we went to that one time with boys like that Hojo guy."

InuYasha's throat filled with bile at the thought of the little bastard touching Kagome and he winced and forced it down.

"I want you to have everything you deserve Kagome."

Kagome cried against his chest.

"I deserve you InuYasha. I love you."

He felt his heart shatter like the Shikon no Tama once had at her words.

"I love you too Kagome" He sank his fang into his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut trying to force the tears back. Once he found control he pulled away from her and kissed her softly on the lips, then dropped his hands from her shoulders.

"You don't deserve me Kagome, no one deserves me. Now go home and don't come back. I never want to see you again."

"You liar! You said you loved me! You said it! It was a lie though wasn't it? You don't love me!"

Kagome tried to reach for him again but he stepped back, his heart breaking. He turned around and walked away, Kagome called out for him, unable to sit him because she had removed the kotodama the night before.

"InuYasha! It's because I'm not Kikyo isn't it?"

"InuYasha!"

InuYasha found a safe spot to sit and watch her, then watched as she sank down on the side of the well and wiped at her eyes.

After several minutes she picked up her back pack and turned to jump into the well.

"This isn't over InuYasha. Not by a long shot!"

The well filled with light and she was gone.

InuYasha picked up the wood planks and nails he had prepared then returned to the well and sealed the top, then placed the seal that Kaede had reluctantly prepared.

"Yeah Kagome… it is." He muttered to himself. "It is fucking over."

He swiped away the tears on his cheeks and took a deep breath of the her lingering scent, then sank down to sit on the ground against the well, giving in to the tears that choked him.

"Kagome…!!!"

He screamed out her name, the mournful wail any yokai would recognize as a yokai that had lost his soul mate.

The portal was sealed, Kagome would not be able to return unless InuYasha himself removed the seal.

He vowed to himself that he would not.

No matter what.

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Black Dragon 

Scroll One

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Bright sunlight penetrated the broken shade over the window of the condemned office building, Kagome raised a shaking hand to cover her eyes. She rolled over on the dirty mattress, cursing the slow passage of time and the way her body shook even though she was sweating her ass off. 

She hated being a weak puny human sometimes. She really fucking did.

She heard feet shuffling through the dust and garbage on the floor.

"That you Kaori?" She called out, thinking that it better fucking be or some son of a bitch was gonna get three and a half inches of razor sharp steel in their gut. She was far from being in the mood to fuck around, and she had no qualms about backing up her words.

If the fucking bastard who use to protect her had taught her anything it was to think of herself first.

"Yeah, its me Kag's"

"Damn bitch" the man laughed at her "You look like shit"

She forced herself to sit up, wrapping her arms around her tiny frame. She was fucking cold, despite the sweat running down her back.

The man laughed "So Kaori said you wanted to deal huh Miko-sama?" the name was a taunt, dating back to the days when she still had some pride, when she thought she was above making the "deal"

"Yeah."

"Guess I can work it. Bare it."

Kagome kicked her shoes off then unzipped her skirt.

"You know the rule." She pulled her panties off and lay down, yanking off the dirty pink tank top while she pushed herself up onto her knees.

"Shit, no matter to me, holes a hole." the man dropped his pants to his knees and knelt down on the dirty mattress. "What you standing there for wareme chan? Get your ass down here."

Kaori took off her own clothes and lay down next to Kagome. She reached for Kagome's breasts and began to fondle the nipples.

"Yeah" He nodded "Keep the fuckers nice and hard like that. Lick on em." The girl repositioned herself to lick and suck on Kagome's breasts. He lined himself up with her anal entrance and slammed himself into her.

Kagome screamed, but it was fake, just another part of the deal. She had quit feeling pain weeks ago, after the first couple times had been so unbearable she'd had no choice but to shut herself off. Making the deal became a necessary part of living after the money from her savings account had run out and her mother cut off access to her college fund. When she had given up the last bit of herself and sold her body to the black dragon.

The Black Dragon was her savior.

It was the closest she had come to filling the huge gaping void in her soul that had once belonged to ….HIM.

The one that she had stood behind faithfully for two years, had been willing to die for. The one she loved. He had betrayed her.

Told her he loved her, kissed her, sent her home and then somehow sealed her only way to him. He never came back for her. Still she might have come back from that, gone on somehow if she hadn't done what she had after she came home…if she hadn't…

"Hey yariman, you gonna move your ass? I ain't dealin' no dead fuck." he slammed into her savagely and Kagome forced herself to move her hips. Slowly, methodically. A robot in motion. She felt nothing. Not his candy nail digging into her hip, nor the hot blood running down the side of her leg in it's wake. She didn't feel him thrusting in and out of her, not her friends fingers up inside her other opening or her lips and tongue on her breasts.

This was as familiar to her by now as firing her bow and arrow, or riding on his back had been in the Sengoku Jidai. It was all a just a part of the deal. Her new quest. You did what you had to in a quest, whether the quest was for the Shikon no Tama or for the Black Dragon.

Kagome wanted the Black Dragon more than she had ever wanted anything, maybe even more than she had wanted him. The black dragon was more important than anything, including the Shikon no Tama. Hell, she wasn't even sure where THAT fucking thing was anymore. She had thrown it at gramps the night she left the shrine, the night she ran away two months ago.

The man screeched out behind her and pushed hard against her. After a minute he pulled out and stripped off the condom, swinging it in around a couple times before letting it fly against the wall.

"Wall decoration for ya bitches" He winked

He slapped Kagome's ass. "Your getting a little loose Miko-sama, gonna have to cut back or start given up the other hole. Can't keep it pure forever."

"Give it" She yanked her skirt and panties back on, then slipped her shirt on. Even less in the mood for playing around than she had been before. She held out her hand as the tremors shook her horribly.

"Whatever bitch" he tossed a baggy in her lap, then grabbed the back of her head by her hair, grinding her face into his crotch.

"There's a tip for ya." he sauntered away.

"See ya when your ready to deal again waremechans"

Kaori rolled her eyes.

"Fuckin dick. Damn Kag's," She looked at Kagome trying to slip the belt around her arm while prepping the hit, all while her hands were shaking furiously.

"Let me," She sat down in front of Kagome and took the stuff from her.

"You okay? I mean, did he …hurt you or anything?"

"Hurry up." Kagome bit out between clenched teeth.

"I don't know how you stand that."

Kagome waved her hand irritably

"He was being really rough with you" Kaori sniffed

"Just fucking hurry your ass."

" Fine damn, here." She shot Kagome her fix watching as she relaxed, then took the belt to fix herself.

"You know that's why they always let you deal right? You let them hurt you…"

Kagome felt the warmth spread over her and she let her head slam back against the wall.

"Keh, they don't hurt me. No one can hurt me."

Kaori recognized "the look" come into Kagome's eyes. The far off one where her friend was so numb she looked like she might be dead. Maybe she was, if being emotionless counted as death.

Kaori had never seen Kagome cry, not once in the two months since they had met. Kaori knew Kagome's little brother had died not long before she hit the streets, but that was another thing Kagome refused to talk about. Like HIM.

Kagome had started telling her one time about a man she had loved. She said his hair looked silver white, like the moon, and his eyes were the brightest amber, like the sun. But that was the last thing she had said that made sense. Kagome had gone off into weird talk about yokai and hanyou and some legend about an undead woman. She'd been pretty strung out at the time.

Since then she had refused to speak about him. The last time Kaori had brought him up Kagome pulled a knife and told her if she brought him up again she would gut her.

It was accepted now the subject was strictly off limits.

Kaori looked at Kagome and rolled up on the mattress next to her and put her arm around her, resting her head on her shoulder. Kagome was chuckling and mumbling to herself.

"Kag's?"

Kagome laughed bitterly "They can't hurt me. You have to feel to hurt."

Kagome had found the Black Dragon.

"I feel nothing."

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InuYasha stared at the seal he had placed on the well six moons before. 

'_Kami, I knew I would miss her, but who knew it would still hurt this much?'_

Sending Kagome away had been the most gut wrenching decision in his life. He could still remember moments after placing the seal, how his hands had longed to tear it away, to go after her and love her. He had sunk down beside the well, unable to leave it, his cheek resting on the ancient wood while his heart cried out for her.

His hand had reached up and been just about to the seal when he heard again the voices that had cursed his mother. Saw the villagers who would throw rocks at them when they went into the village. He realized then that as much as it hurt, as much as his heart ached for her, his hands longed to touch her, he had done the right thing.

The right thing for Kagome turned out to be the wrong thing for everybody else.

The others had been heartbroken and angry with him when they returned to the village and found out what he had done. That he hadn't let them have any choice in the matter was bad enough but they hadn't even been given the chance to say goodbye to her. They had all remained in the village at first, until Sango and Miroku started fighting regularly.

Kagome had always been the one to help them work through their problems. She had a way about her, a knack for making Sango see when she was being irrational and made Miroku see when he was hurting Sango with his lecherous behaviour towards her when others were around.

After Miroku's attention began to stray to other women in the village, they woke one morning to find that Sango had taken Kirara and gone away, back to the slayers village that had slowly begun to rebuild in her absence. Miroku left shortly after, returning to Master Mushin at the temple.

All was peaceful for a couple weeks until he had come from the forest to find Shippo desperately trying to remove the seal on the well to get to Kagome. When he couldn't, he demanded InuYasha do it and when InuYasha refused, pleading with Shippo to understand, Shippo had run away in the night. InuYasha had searched for him, finding him en-route to the slayers village.

When InuYasha took him the rest of the way Sango had been happy to keep Shippo. While she had welcomed him, InuYasha had become someone Sango treated like a stranger instead of someone that she had fought along side for two years, someone who had been family.

InuYasha was irritated, enough so that he stopped to see Miroku on the way back, only to find that Miroku felt the same way. Miroku in fact had actually told him that he was reforming himself, turning from his perversions and strengthening his vows as a houshi and thus was no longer comfortable allowing the presence of a hanyou at the temple. Miroku had actually turned InuYasha away.

Looking back, InuYasha couldn't blame him, the pained look in Miroku's eyes told the same story as Sango's. They blamed him for their broken engagement, for sending away the one person who might have helped them salvage it.

InuYasha didn't return to the village after that. He felt like hell, much like he had in the first days after waking from the tree when he first faced what he believed to be Kikyo's 'betrayal'. Only now he didn't have an angel from the future to ease his pain. He had sent her away and brought this hell on himself and everyone he cared about.

He missed Kagome so much he couldn't stand it, sometimes his whole body ached with the desire to hold her in his arms. But still, none of that mattered. Let the others hate him, it was okay if he was so alone he ached with the loneliness. The only thing that was important was that Kagome was somewhere where she was safe and happy

She was home with her family and friends, taking her tests. Probably dating that Hojo bastard by now. As long as Kagome was happy, it didn't matter that he was miserable and alone. And as bad as he felt about the pain of the ones he had thought of as family, even that didn't matter , as long as Kagome was happy and safe.

Then he started having the nightmares.

They were always the same. Kagome was all alone with no one to protect her, small, vulnerable and afraid being chased through heavy blackness and fog by a ferocious black dragon.

In the first nightmares weeks ago, she tried to run from the dragon, but it always over came her and she lay, crying as the dragon stood over her, opened its huge jaws and devoured her.

Over time as the dream progressed, Kagome gave up. She ran less, slower and slower. Now in his dream as the dragon approached her she opened her arms and welcomed the dragon, laying down, rolling on her stomach… allowing it to brutally fuck her and feast on her flesh in exchange for sparing her life, all the while she sobbed horribly.

He hadn't thought it could get much worse than that, but he was wrong.

As bad and horrible as that image was, what haunted InuYasha now was that in his nightmare, Kagome had stopped crying.

Unable to stand it anymore he had come back to the village and told Kaede about his dream and she had Feh'd at him...

-Flashback-

"_Why do ye question the obvious InuYasha?"_

"_Whats suppose to be so obvious hag?"_

"_The obvious baka Inu is that either you so desperately need to be with Kagome your mind is giving your heart a reason to fear for her safety or…"_

"_Keh, kuso."_

"_Quiet InuYasha. ...or Kagome is in such desperate need of you that she is sending you messages the only way that she is able."_

"_Need? How?"_

"_This I can not answer, Kagome could be I'll, or in such deep sadness because she misses her friends here, perhaps she wishes to take her life, or she could be in some kind of danger…does she still not carry the Shikon no Tama?"_

_InuYasha nodded._

"_I promised to protect her…then I left her alone. But…I thought her time was safe. Kaede, you sure these ain't just weird dreams cause I miss her?"_

"_Aye, it could be so." She nodded "However, since you have told me of them I have had a chill on my skin, yet sweat runs down my back and my flesh is raised in spots. I do not think it would be wise to discount this InuYasha. At the very least, ye should check on Kagome."_

_InuYasha looked torn and Kaede placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, then touched his cheek._

"_InuYasha, I understand why ye did what ye did and that it took a great deal of love for ye to give Kagome up. It was a brave and admirable thing ye did. But, perhaps looking back, it is best for all to admit now that it was not the right thing." _

_InuYasha looked up at Kaede and nodded, then left to go to the well._

-End-

InuYasha reached down and tore the seal from the well and began to tear off the boards that covered it. Once the top was cleared, he nodded at Kaede, and plunged in.

InuYasha was sheathed in blue light.

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Mrs. Higurashi sat cross-legged on the floor of the unused bedroom, she cried, her face hidden in the chest of a big pink teddy bear. 

The bedroom was her only daughters, the daughter she hadn't seen in two months. Not since the night they had cornered her in this very room and tried to force her into drug rehab.

-Flashback-

"_Kagome, you may not be able to see it, but your in serious trouble. This... stuff your doing has changed you…it is killing you." Gramps stood near the door._

"_Kagome, we understand you have been hurting for months, I know you miss InuYasha..."_

"_screw that necro."_

" _...but he did what he thought best for you. We are all hurting, But what happened to Sota, it wasn't your fault…the only one who blames you is you." _

"_Kami, mother, your so fucking stupid."_

"_Kagome, don't you talk to your mama like that!" Gramps stood in the doorway and Kagome whirled on him._

"_Who asked you?" She tried to shove Gramps out of the way and when he wouldn't move she had grown even more angry._

"_Get out of my fucking way!"_

"_You were not raised to speak to your elders like that! What would InuYasha think if he…"_

"_FUCK that half-breed necro bastard" she tore the darkening Shikon no Tama off her neck and threw it at Gramps. She pulled a blade from her pocket and held it on him. _

"_Now get the fuck out of my way."_

_He had no choice but to let her pass. No one had seen her since._

_The next morning Kagome drained almost five hundred dollars from her savings account and another three hundred from her college fund before her mother had been able to block her access._

_-End-_

Mrs. Higurashi heard someone on the roof next to the window, she found herself praying it was Kagome, and praying it wasn't. Then the window opened and a red sleeve pushed through the curtains, then another and InuYasha pushed through the window.

Mrs. Higurashi gasped and jumped to her feet.

"InuYasha! InuYasha…. thank kami! Oh thank Kami you've come."

InuYasha was surprised to see her standing in Kagome's room, but his mind instantly registered the staleness of Kagome's scent, also that the scent that remained was laced with traces of some kind of poison.

He looked at Mrs. Higurashi his eyes grew wide with surprise. She had dark circles under her eyes and heavy wrinkles, and she looked so tired. Her once jet black hair was now laced with heavy strands of white.

Worst of all was, her eyes, mirror images of Kagome's, were filled with so much pain it made him hurt just to look into them.

InuYasha stammered out the first thing he could think of to say.

"Kagome's in trouble isn't she?"

Mrs. Higurashi nodded. "How did you ..."

"I keep having nightmares about Kagome being hurt...by a dragon a huge black dragon."

Mrs. Higurashi gasped and moved towards Kagome's desk and picked up a black cloth. She unrolled it and showed InuYasha what was inside. A strip of rubber, a hypodermic needle and a small bag with a small trace of yellowish powder.

"Wh...what is that?" InuYasha felt cold sweat run down his back, whatever was happening to Kagome, he was suddenly feeling this was bigger than he could have possibly imagined in his worst nightmares.

"It's the black dragon."

He looked her blankly.

"Black Dragon is the street name Kagome used for a drug called Heroin."

She rolled the bag back up and threw it against the desk, then stood, her shoulders slumped.

Tears fell down her face and when she stepped forward and put her arms around his shoulders to hug him, he instinctively put his arms around her shoulders and let her cry.

"Thank kami you've come InuYasha. Thank Kami."

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-Necro- or a Necrophiliac is someone who has a sexual attraction to dead people-in other words, Kikyo.

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Scroll II Preview

InuYasha discovers what drove Kagome over the edge..

InuYasha Searches Tokyo to reclaim Kagome and bring her home again, what he finds will break his heart, will his spirit be able to hang on and save her from the Black Dragon?

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Notes:

Yes, I know this is shocking, Yes, I know Kagome is very out of character. This will all be explained in the next chapter okay? So please suspend disbelief and give me the benefit of the doubt until then!

I have striven really hard to imagine what would drive the Princess of Perky over the edge into drug abuse and I think I've come up with a plausible back story. So, just give this fiction a chance. I'll warn you, I don't know how often I will update, given the highly depressing and emotional tone I won't put a lot of steady time into it and bring myself down, rather I will work on it when I get the urge. It will be very realistic, so don't look for Kagome to barf once or twice and then be all sunshine and flowers again the next day. Heroin addiction is ugly, withdrawal and recovery is uglier. But within the ugliness there will be moments of beauty. Stubborn ass that he is, InuYasha will of course try on his own at first and fail, look for the group to come back together to help InuYasha and Kagome through this. In the end, I promise a rewarding ending. Even if it takes a little while to get there!

CJ

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-Please don't send me a crap load of flames, if you don't like the story or think I'm out of my friggin mind, just click the little red box in the corner. Thank you!

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	2. Scroll II

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. White Rabbit(Prologue), By Jefferson Airplane

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Warning: This fiction is a big departure from my usual works. It is very graphic and dark, containing violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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-Prologue

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_Kagome felt the wind rushing through her hair, Shippo and the others were back at the village and for once it was just her and InuYasha, just like it had been in the beginning. As much as she loved the others, she treasured these private moments with InuYasha. When they were alone he let his guard down and showed her his sweet and caring side, the side that would abruptly stop and pull her into his lap to watch the sunset as he had just a little bit ago just as they began their journey back to the village from visiting Jenenji._

_He had looked at her with so much softness and what she hoped was love, he had been doing that a lot since the night he had almost kissed her in her room, before Sota and her family came home and ruined everything. In fact he had looked like he had wanted to kiss her again just then..._

Kagome was startled by a sharp slap across the face, she wiped away the blood that ran down her chin with a badly shaking hand. Pissed off at herself for almost losing her skin pop. She needed it bad. He waved the already filled pop in front of her face, taunting her.

"Hey cunt, no fuckin sleeping when ya spose be suckin ."

He grabbed her hair and jerked her face back to his penis. Kagome opened her mouth and slid him back into her mouth, refusing to let her mind wander this time. What was the point anyway, that girl felt things, hurt too easy. That stupid bitch was a killer.

Kagome shut her mind off and moaned, pretending to be turned on by the pig standing over her jerking on her hair. That girl never would have done the things she did, lucky for her that sorry bitch was dead.

Good riddance and rest in peace, stupid bitch.

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-Black Dragon 

-Scroll II

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_One pill makes you larger_

_And one pill makes you small,_

_And the ones that mother gives you_

_Don't do anything at all._

_Go ask Alice_

_When she's ten feet tall._

InuYasha walked the midnight streets of Tokyo trying to catch a scent to Kagome's whereabouts. He knew he had to be getting close, the scent of the poison on that needle Kagome's mother had shown him was on many of the people he was passing. These people looked sick, dirty. The air reeked of unwashed bodies and embedded filth, horrible despicable sex smells like came out of the worst of the whore houses, the kind that even Miroku looked at with disgust.

Once, InuYasha had asked him why and Miroku had told him those were places where deranged men went who liked to torture the flesh of women and cause them pain and suffering...the kind who got pleasure from destroying their beauty instead of cherishing and treasuring it as a man should.

InuYasha thought he smelt something familiar in an alley and stepped into it, then backed out just as quickly when he saw a woman on her knees in front of a man performing oral sex.

InuYasha wanted to throw up at the sight of the dirty woman on her knees. He thought that after two years chasing Naraku there was nothing left of the ugliness of life that he hadn't seen. He had seen friends torn open, seen the woman he had once loved attempt to kill him under Naraku's deception. InuYasha had seen Miroku bleeding from every opening on his face from Naraku's shouki and had held Kikyo when her false body exploded in his arms. Still all of those things paled in comparison to these people. The things these people were doing were deplorable.

And his Kagome was somewhere among them.

It was unimaginable.

He stopped suddenly, a very familiar and beloved scent assaulted his senses and he whirled around, backtracking.

Kagome's blood scent was in the air. It lacked the sweet innocence it once held, now carrying heavy traces of the poison it carried, but it was Kagome just the same...

...And it came from the same alleyway he had just turned out of.

_And if you go chasing rabbits_

_And you know you're going to fall,_

_Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar_

_Has given you the call._

_Call Alice_

_When she was just small._

InuYasha stood frozen to the spot. His soul shattered into pieces and were ground into a fine powder, making InuYasha only the next in the list of the victims to fall to the claws of the black dragon. His heart spoke before his mind.

_...that woman on her knees _

_kami...no...it can't be...there has to be some mistake_

_You have eyes InuYasha...you can smell her_

_Kagome...but she...she..._

_Shes sucking that bastard's cock!_

_Maybe your wrong...maybe they just smell alike or..._

"Hey prick...go get your own blowjob."

The woman didn't stop.

"What are you queer or something? You wanna suck me off too?"

The man shoved the woman away and she fell onto her side and curled up, shaking. InuYasha continued to ignore the man and moved toward to woman.

"Hey, I'm talking to you asshole." He pulled out a knife and waved it at InuYasha, that got his attention, enough to snap InuYasha out of his shock enough to reply.

"What the fuck you gonna do with that bastard? Trim my toe nails?" InuYasha ground out with a growl, noticing that the woman was trying to get to her feet. The man shoved her roughly down again.

"We ain't done cunt, stay on your knees where you belong."

"Okay" She whimpered "But can I have my..."

_Kagome's voice!_

"Shut the fuck up you stupid cunt!" She was hit with a fist and her head snapped back and hit the wall next to her roughly and she crumpled to the ground and curled into a ball.

The man turned around just in time to catch the glimmer of red flash in InuYasha's eyes before his claws reached out and ripped into his throat and he was dropped, dead long before he hit the ground.

"Kagome..." InuYasha called out to her, his arms opened to her, his heart and eyes pleading with her to come to him, to come with him.

_When the men on the chessboard_

_Get up and tell you where to go_

_And you've just had some kind of mushroom_

_And your mind is moving low._

_Go ask Alice_

_I think she'll know._

Kagome lifted her eyes to where the mans booted feet lay still on the ground.

_'Somebody...fuck...someone killed Gineo! Who would do this... shit!...who will I deal with now god damn it!'_

Her eyes moved up to the pockets on his cargo pants

_'If I hurry, before the police come...I can...'_

"_Kagome..." InuYasha called out to her, his arms opened to her, his heart and eyes pleading with her to come to him, to come with him._

_No, she had to be seeing things...InuYasha was kneeling beside her. What the hell was he doing there?_

"_Kagome...I came to bring you home."_

_'FUCK HOME...over my dead fucking body'_

"InuYasha!" Kagome threw herself into his arms

_InuYasha sighed and relaxed against her, pulling her to her feet._

"_Your okay now Kagome, I'm going to get you better."_

"Oh InuYasha. Thank Kami you came...I was so scared...he was hurting me. I thought he was going to kill me...They've made me do things...I didn't want to."

_Kagome carefully reached into her back pocket._

"_I know. It's okay Kagome. I'm here now. I'll take care of..."_

InuYasha gasped as cold sharp steel was thrust into his ribs, pulled out, then thrust in again, then repeated five more times in quick succession. He staggered backwards against the other side of the alley and slumped against the wall and slid to the ground.

"Kagome..."

He looked up to find her digging through the pockets of the man he had just killed. She put some money and a baggie of yellowish powder into a pocket. Finally, she pulled out a needle like the one her mother had shown him then jerked her belt out of the loops, wrapped it around her arm and shot the contents of the needle into her arm.

She stood to run out of the alley way then turned and glared at InuYasha.

"Thanks a lot bastard, now I have to find a new dealer. Come near me again motherfucker and I'll gut you."

_When logic and proportion_

_Have fallen softly dead,_

_And the White Knight is talking backwards_

_And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"_

_Remember what the dormouse said:_

_Feed your head. Feed your head._

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Chapter Three Preview

While InuYasha recovers from Kagome's stab woulds,

InuYasha finds out what drove Kagome to drugs

Plans are made to get Kagome help, but can Kagome find a reason to live?

Now that InuYasha knows he can't save Kagome alone, who will he turn to for help?

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Notes: This was meant to be part of a longer chapter but something just felt right with the way it came together to end it where I did, and the song "White Rabbit" just naturally came into my mind for InuYasha's first attempt to "rescue" Kagome. I knew the first time he would be stubborn and refuse to think he needed help, and I wanted to make it bad enough that he REALLY got the point. I think getting stabbed 7 times in the gut and watching Kagome pop after she totally conned him and robbed a dead drug dealer, not even caring that InuYasha just wasted the guy, should get the point across, eh? 

Besides, with how truly amazingly wonderful you guys have been with the support and reviews I wanted to get an update up to you all. Sorry, I know this is a bit of a quickie, and not as good as the first which I worked months on. For those youngsters out there who don't know, the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane is a classic song about drugs, obviously hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and mushrooms. Remember, I am NOT glorifying drug use with this story! Drugs are ...well, I can't even say how bad drugs are. Just stay off the shit boys and girls okay?

Finally, as parts of this story take place on the street I am using street language. Skin popping, or popping, is another term for shooting up. I mean absolutely NO DISRESPECT in my use of the term queer! I am trying to be realistic. Lets be real, some guy interupts another guy in the process of getting a blowjob he's not going to nicely say, "Are of same sex prefrerenced? " No, he's gonna say "Are you queer" I am so not a homophobe.

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-Please don't flame me okay? Be nice!

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	3. Scroll III

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Warning: This work of fiction is very graphic and dark, containing violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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-Prologue

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"_Mama! Mama! Look! Look! I made something special today!"_

_Dekigachi__ Higurashi, Deki to her friends, hurried down the remaining two steps to the sidewalk to meet the yellow school bus where Kagome stood on the last step waiting after another day of kindergarten, her hands clutched a small wrapped box._

_She stepped up and took Kagome's hand to help her take the last big step to the side walk._

"_Oh my little Kagome-chan! It's your birthday and yet you made mama a box with pretty paper! How kind, I shall treasure it always!"_

_Kagome giggled as her mother waved to the bus driver and knelt down to take the box Kagome held tightly in her hands while she excitedly bounced on her toes._

"_NO mama!" Kagome giggled into her hand madly "The box ain't your present!"_

"_It's not?"_

"_No!"_

"_But the box is so pretty." She held Kagome's hand as they walked up several steps then turned and sat down to wait for the next family member to arrive home. "And it's looks like you made it. You know how much I love it when you make me things Kagome."_

_Kagome's beamed with pride._

"_I know! We made the pretty paper with tissue paper and stamps" __Dekigachi smiled and nodded but Kagome's little face became instantly stern, wearing her no-nonsense look she usually saved for Buyo.__"__but mama...what's inside is the present. Besides, it is much better than the paper"_

"_Heavens, what could be better than such a pretty box?" She began to loosen the tape but Kagome stopped her._

"_NO! You can't open it until Papa comes!"_

"_Oh! Is this for Mama and Papa?"_

_Kagome nodded excitedly _

"_But your the birthday girl thats turning six today!"_

"_I know, but a girl in my class, her name is Eri...she told that without Mama's and Papa's deciding to have s-x-x and make babies, kids wouldn't get to have birthdays."_

_Deki smiled and laughed a little and pressed her fingers to her mouth_

"_So you and Papa should get to have a present too!"_

'What happened to my sweet girl?'

Deki opened her eyes and allowed the tears to fall freely down onto her pillow as her eyes lifted to the heavens.

Kami...where is my Kagome tonight? Is she safe...is she alive?'

Deki whispered to the darkness...

"Please... kami. Please help InuYasha bring her back from the beast that owns her heart now."

Deki stared into the darkness, wondering if she would ever see the joy of light again. She was weary of the darkness and loathed it with every last bit of her waning strength.

The darkness was ruled by the one that had stolen her last hope of light...her Kagome.

The darkness was ruled by the Black Dragon...

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-Black Dragon

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-Scroll III

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InuYasha breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the well and kicked the door closed behind him. That was one nice thing about that disgusting side of Kagome's world, everybody was so busy withtheir own pursuits that nobody noticed a badly disguised hanyou in filthy coveralls carrying the body of a dead drug dealer tied up in a strip of old moldy tied up carpet to the quiet part of town in the blackness of night..

He threw the body in the well, then tore off the disgusting coveralls that he had fished out of a dumpster. He swore, realizing he had torn the wounds again and was bleeding. He was never going to heal at this rate, but it wasn't like he could leave a dead guy laying around either. They might come after Kagome.

InuYasha sighed, wincing at the pain in his middle and removed the now bloody hat that he always use to wear when he visited and tossed it and the coveralls into the well with the dead mans body. Then he jumped in himself, grabbing onto the carpet at the last moment to drag it through with him. He emerged from the well nearly five hundred years earlier.

'I can't believe I have to bury this fucker before I can go back and find Kagome again.' he thought grimly

"Fucking shit eating bastard. You don't deserve a proper burial." InuYasha mumbled out loud as he hefted the rolled up carpet to his shoulder and ran into the forest, the aching and bleeding in his gut a constant reminder of what he had done...of the things Kagome had done.

He had killed a human. The thing was, the only thing that was bothering him about it was that he wasn't bothered by it in the least.

He had plenty of other things to be bothered about to waste his concern on some bastard who had hurt Kagome. Against his will the vision flooded his mind again of Kagome being hit...he had hit her so fucking hard! Once again InuYasha saw her head flying backwards and connecting with the hard brick wall before she fell into a crumpled heap.

The thing that tore at InuYasha's heart was that of all he had seen that night, that was the image that brought him the least amount of pain.

Kagome ... on her knees when he first saw her sucking off the man InuYasha had killed. One glance at the needle in mans hand had confirmed InuYasha's assumption...Kagome was doing it for the Black Dragon of his nightmares. For the drug her mother had called heroin.

Still, like a baka, he'd believed her when she claimed she had been forced to do it. Or maybe he was just desperately clinging to that last threat of his hope...instead the thread broke and Kagome stabbed him seven times, took the dead guys money and a bag of something, InuYasha figured it was heroin.

Kagome...on her bony knees again...searching for the needle the guy had dropped when she found it shot the stuff into her arm right in front of him and before she left she threatened to kill him if he came near her again.

Kagome... the bruises and needle marks all over the inside of pencil thin arms that shook while she injected the poison into herself.

Kagome...filthy clothes that hung on a too skinny body, the aching pain in her eyes that cried out to him to help her just before she ran from the alley.

InuYasha stepped away from the freshly covered grave and spit on it, still not regretting in the least that the monster inside was dead. As he turned to run back to the well he allowed a memory of Kagome from seven months ago to come back ...

_New moon, Naraku had been destroyed a week before and for once InuYasha felt like he didn't have to hide his vulnerable human form. Kagome lay next to him on the hillside, her head resting on his arm as they watched the stars sparkling in the moonless sky..._

"_It's incredible..." Kagome smiled brightly_

"_They're the same stars you see every night Kagome" He chuckled " your always so dramatic."_

_Kagome giggled and rolled up onto her elbows to look down at him , her jet hair fell in a sleek cascade over her shoulder and down onto his hand and he couldn't resist the urge to play with the ends where they brushed over his fingers._

"_Not that baka" Kagome pulled softly on the hair that spilled off his chest, allowing her fingers to stay wrapped among the silky silver strands._

"_I meant that it's new moon and you aren't worried at all."_

_InuYasha smiled, she was right, he didn't have a care in the world. For the first time since his mother had died...he didn't have to worry about his safety during new moon._

"_Keh, I never worry"_

"_Keh, liar. You've worried every new moon since I first met you. Since the night with the spiderheads."_

"_The first time you shed tears for me." _

_Kagome sat up "The first time I almost lost you" She took a deep shaky breath and let it out on a deep sigh. "The first of many times I almost lost you InuYasha"_

_She buried her head in her knees to hide the fact that she was crying again. It wasn't the first time since the final battle. When he got worried and talked to Kaede about it she told him not to worry, it was just all the stress from the past few months being released, Kagome would be okay in a few weeks._

_InuYasha propped up on his elbow and scooted closer to her and took one of her hands._

"_Hey, Kagome? Could I lay in your lap?" _

_She turned her head, looked at him and smiled with a little giggle, then lowered her legs. InuYasha nestled his head into her lap and she stroked his long black glossy hair as it spilled over her legs. Minutes passed in sweet silence, they didn't need words to speak to one another, they hadn't for a long, long time.. InuYasha and Kagome had a rapport that was fine tuned to perfection, like the most beautiful Stradivarius. _

_InuYasha felt himself beginning to feel groggy. His body was still worn down from his injuries received during the battle, and being human meant that he lost the stamina and healing he enjoyed while hanyou. Kagome noticed his closed eyes and drooping body so she pulled her sleeping bag over and unzipped it all the way, then threw it over them._

_InuYasha moved his head out of her lap and opened his arms, inviting her to lay next to him. Kagome lay next to him, back to his chest and he wrapped his arms around her _

"_You still smell kinda nice Kagome"_

_The last thing he remembered before he fell into sleep was Kagome kissing his cheek and his lips curving into a smile._

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InuYasha jumped to Kagome's bedroom window and slowly slid it open. Not paying attention to what he was doing his hoari caught on a loose piece metal of window frame and he fell hard against it, then tumbled into the room onto the floor. Instantly, blood began pouring out of knife wounds that had just been opened and further torn.

"Shit" InuYasha took a good look down at himself as he lay there on the floor. He was filthy, covered in blood and dirt and he stunk of the streets that he had roamed in his search. He forced himself to his feet and to the bathroom to clean himself up.

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Deki rolled over and reached for the small trinket box on her bedside stand. She opened the lid and pulled out the two "gold and silver" rings made from yellow and gray pipe cleaners, then slipped them on her finger. She set the trinket box back and lifted her late husbands photograph in its frame to hold against her heart.

"Oh Inkei , how I wish you were here. I've not done a very good job holding our family together have I?" Deki wiped at the tears on her face.

"Perhaps it was a mistake letting Kagome travel with InuYasha. Is that where our troubles began? No, I don't regret that, that brought InuYasha to us and he is as dear to me as one of my own almost."

She wiped her face with the sleeve of her pajama's, set the picture back on the table and put her precious rings back away.

'Thank Kami for InuYasha. I've already lost a husband and a son, then ojii slipped away from me too. We must find a way to bring Kagome back.

Deki shut off the light with a new resolve in her heart. She was almost asleep when she was woken by a loud thump right over her head as something landed heavily on the floor in the room above hers.

She lay still, afraid to move for a minute.

"Kami please be InuYasha." Deki said on a deep sigh. The alternative was enough to push her over the edge. Before InuYasha had come that afternoon the last time someone had used that window was the day of Ojii's funeral. Deki had been at the graveyard and when she returned home near dawn she discovered that her change jar had been emptied out along with her wallet.

Her jewelry box sat open next to the empty wallet and jar on the kitchen table. Further inspection revealed that things were missing. Expensive things. Several expensive pieces of jewelry that Inkei had given her on birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas's since they had been courting...including the ruby promise ring he had given her for Christmas two years before they had become engaged.

The jewelry box had always been kept locked in a safe and only two people besides herself had known the combination. One of them had died three days before, the other was the daughter she had lost to the beast...the Black Dragon.

Deki couldn't stand it anymore. It was five in the morning and someone was in her home, she had to know who it was. She reached into her purse and took out her tazer and pepper spray, then made her way through the kitchen and up towards Kagome's room, turning lights on as she went. She reached the bathroom and found the door shut but heard water running inside so she tried the knob.

The knob turned and she pushed the door open to find InuYasha slumped on the floor in only his hakema, blood running down his stomach and chest.

"InuYasha!" She gasped, rushing into the room dropping her mini arsenal into the clothes hamper as she passed.

His head snapped up and Deki was shocked to see his face, his eyes swollen and tear stained. Instinctively she knew he wasn't crying from the bleeding wounds to his torso and chest.

"Oh InuYasha..." She put gentle hands on his cheeks. "You went after her didn't you."

InuYasha nodded and tried to pull away but Deki just wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into the warmth of a mothers embrace. It wasn't the first time she had hugged him like this, but it had been a very long time since the last time and he hadn't realized how much he had missed her, she really had been a like a mother to him.

"Did you find her?"

"I found..." he stopped, not sure who he had found in that alley. "I found some one who kinda looked like her and smelled like her but she was nothing like Kagome."

Deki pulled back and pulled the towel away from his wounds to look closer.

"She did this didn't she..." she looked up and met his watery eyes "Kagome?"

InuYasha could only stare back, wishing for her sake...and maybe for his own sake as well, he wished he could lie to her. But he couldn't...not to this woman who treated him with so much kindness and love

"She...she...lied to me...sh...sh she lied me and then she tried... Kagome tried to kill me."

InuYasha slumped against Deki and she put her arms around him again and held him while his mournful sobs shattered the pre-dawn quiet around the peaceful shrine. He wasn't sobbing alone, but by now Deki's sobs had become weary.

Weary and silent.

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**A/N ******** Lines in BOLD REG are Kagome's thoughts**

** _Lines in reg italics belong to someone else...but I can't tell you who_**

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Kagome sat on the rooftop of a skyscraper staring into the blinding lights of downtown Tokyo.

**'Papa's office'**

she had run there seeking a safe place after she had run from the alley.

**'I have to get to Papa's office...it's the only place I will be safe! '**

_That man with the funny clothes killed Gineo...Why the fuck did he do that? Now you have to find someone else ...someone else who carries the beast. ...that man was freaky... is that man gonna come after you now?_

******He killed Gineo after...when I was...but I give head all the time, it's no biggie. It's not like when they...do other things...**

_It's all part of working the deal yariman._

******IM FUCKING SICK OF WORKING THE DEAL! IM SICK OF DOING THAT STUFF... IT HURTS!!**

_Your the one who wanted to keep the other part pure Miko...you wanted to save it for your precious Inu..._

******NO! Don't!! Please...Don't say his name...it hurts just to hear it!!**

_don't matter now anyway bitch...cause you killed him._

**What**

**You killed InuYasha! Hahahahaha! Stupid wareme! **

******NO!**

_Yes! You took your knife and stabbed him over and over..._

******NO! I WOULD NEVER HURT INUYASHA! I WOULD NEVER!**

_Don't believe me bitch...believe the blood all over you._

**Kagome looked down and saw the blood that covered her body and she screamed.**

******OH KAMI NO!! NO!! WHY!**

_He tried to take you away from what made you happy._

******What...what makes me happy?**

_You know what makes you happy yariman._

******I do not! Go away! Leave me alone!**

_I will never leave you now...besides, you don't want me to go. You thirst for me, hunger for me, love me, desire me, you lust for me_

**No****! InuYasha!**

_He can't save you now...no one can...you are mine. You are my whore, my slut, my wareme. You sell yourself for me, let men sodomize you until you scream and bleed, for me, you steal and lie for me...and now you've killed the one you love for me._

******Kami no! Kami help me!**

_All the Kami man can imagine combined can't help you now wareme._

******Who..Who are you**

_You know who I am bitch._

**You're t****he Beast...the Black Dragon**

_Ding Ding give my slut a prize...here bitch, here's your fix. You got plenty for awhile since you rolled that junk dealer. Nice job Miko by the way didn't know you had it in you, to not even give a shit after that freak killed a human. Ah but he's dead anyway, too bad, it would have been fun to take him as well._

Kagome slumped on her side as the warmth rushed over her body and she dropped her needle. With heavy arms she pushed the belt off her arm then let herself relax fully and stare at the Tokyo skyline as she cherished the rush. They never lasted anywhere near long enough.

******What are you going to do with me**

_I'm gonna do what I do with everyone. Take you until there is nothing but me inside of you. No mind, no heart, no soul. And then ..._

_...Then I'm going to kill you bitch._

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InuYasha lay back against Kagome's pillows, her scent surrounded him and he felt comfort wraparound his soul, as if a part of her was still reaching out to soothe him though her physical body was missing. 

He winced now and then as Deki cleaned the torn flesh on his stomach and chest, using the familiar items that Kagome had long ago hauled all over the Sengoku Jidai centuries before their creation. Even the stinging from the wound cleansers and antibiotic salves was comforting. It was a reminder of old Kagome, the Kagome he was gaining more and more resolve by the minute to bring back to her mother who from all appearances desperately needed her.

InuYasha was growing angry with himself as well, for the past five weeks Deki had been bearing all of this on her shoulders completely alone. That was about the time his instinct first told him to open the seal on the well. Why the hell had he fought it so fucking long.

Hell, it was what it always was. His pride, too fucking proud to admit that he had made a mistake sealing the well...no, his mistake had been sending her home. His mistake had been thinking he could live without her, and as usual not giving any consideration to what she wanted. Now everything was changed and there was no going back.

He of all people knew you can't change the past no matter what you do.For nearly two years he had done everything in his power for not being able to save Kikyo the day Naraku deceived them into hating and betraying one another. But it didn't change anything, the only thing he accomplished was a drive a wedge between himself and Kagome.

No...wait...

That wasn't exactly true. He had accomplished more than that, he had been able to hold her as she died that time, to share her final moments. She was happy, finally she smiled again. It was Kikyo's real smile, the smile he had only seen once, the day he agreed to become human for her.

Kikyo's greatest wish had come true, she had found happiness as an ordinary woman at last and she left the battle for them to finish and she went on to a peaceful rest. InuYasha found his peace too though it took him some time to find it. It had been there all along but he had denied it to himself because of his duty.

Finally he found peace and atonement in a pair of soft brown eyes, saving grace in the gentle arms of the most amazing woman he had ever known.

Then he repaid her by sending her away and not being there when she had needed him.

InuYasha turned his head and looked at Sota's picture, a beautiful eight by ten from a few months before he died that sat on her book shelf, the glass broken in the corner and the wood split. He could almost see Kagome mourning and sobbing over the picture, her anger flaring up as she flung the picture at the wall in rage.

He glanced at Deki as she began to tape the gauze pads into place over his already healing wounds then his eyes flitted back to the picture.

"He missed you, you know" She smiled sadly "You were his hero."

InuYasha felt his throat clench tightly and he swallowed hard

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to...save him, or to ...to stop Kagome from..."

He was stopped by her hand over his mouth.

"InuYasha, I do not want to hear you blame yourself. If you start that I will probably hurt you, so lets not go to place okay?"

He looked at her and nodded. He knew she was teasing, but he didn't doubt her words. She was Kagome's mother and he knew the saying about the 'apple not falling far from the tree' far, far, too well.

He looked away again as Deki began to gather his dirty clothes. She had given him a pair of Ojii's old pajama's so she could wash the blood and muck from his own. She was to the door when the need for answers became too much to bear. When she returned with water for him he forced up the courage to ask before she had a chance to leave again.

"Wait..." She stopped in the doorway

"How...I mean...I just..."

Deki sat on the side of the bed with a sigh. She looked at InuYasha with concerned eyes, worried about how he would take all of it at once.

"Which do you wish me to tell of InuYasha? Kagome, Sota...Ojii..."

InuYasha shrugged "All of them" he looked up quickly "If it is okay for you...I mean you don't have to do it for me..."

She clenched his hand for a minute, squeezing it reassuringly.

"They were your family too InuYasha, you should know. Besides, you must know if you are to help Kagome."

InuYasha nodded.

"Well, I guess the place to start would be the beginning. You know InuYasha, the little girl who fell into the well on her fifteenth birthday never came home again. Little by little she was replaced by this woman who was in many ways a stranger to me. By the time she came home for good six months ago that little Kagome, had turned into a strong, brave warrior.

"At first she was tired, and she missed you all so much but she focused on her school work and getting her grades up. She was always so educationally driven. Looking back it all makes sense now, with you in the Sengoku Jidai, Kagome lived a highly physical life. Traveling and battling yokai, always one adventure after another. But here, she quickly got bored and restless.

"She tried athletics at school, but nothing was challenging enough, they didn't offer archery or yokai slaying. In the end, Kagome started searching outside of school. That's how she stumbled across mountain climbing"

InuYasha looked at her like she had lost her mind

"Mountain climbing ? Kagome? No way... She always made me carry her."

Deki smiled a little "Yes...she had a rough start, and the classes were expensive. They trained in a large gymnasium with simulated rock walls, but you could go anytime they weren't holding classes and practice. Kagome, Sota and I went down to sign her up and they offered us a deal for half off a second set of lessons for Sota.

"The two had become inseparable, mostly because Kagome couldn't talk about the past with anyone else, so she became adamant that I sign him up. Sota too. Finally, I caved. I just couldn't fight the both of them, and they...they assured me it was safe."

"It wasn't."

Deki shook her head as she wiped at a tear.

"Kagome picked it up fast, Sota too, but he was a good deal smaller. That Saturday Kagome was planning on taking her first climb on the highest, most difficult wall they offered. She and Sota loved climbing together, really loved it, but he was afraid of this wall so Kagome was teasing him about being scared. By the time we got there Sota had forgotten about being afraid and was challenging Kagome to a race up the wall."

InuYasha felt his throat tighten, something inside knew he didn't want to hear her next words.

Deki took a deep breath and released it slowly.

"A little more than half way up Sota's safety line tangled with the climber above him. When they were trying to pull them apart Sota's line broke and before Kagome could get to him he slipped off the grip and fell to the ground. He died on impact."

"Fucking Kami...shit...I...I'm sorry. Kami...I wish I had ...been here...I could have..."

"Don't InuYasha, Sota wouldn't like that."

"But Kagome...she...oh fuck...thats when...when she..."

Deki nodded "It started a week after Sota's funeral. I caught her coming in drunk one night. Within a couple weeks it was every night. Three months ago her room started smelling strange, like weird smoke. It was a drug called Hashish. I started finding strange things, like an empty baggies in her room with traces of powdery stuff in it, turned out that was either cocaine or heroin, I would come home and she would jump up off the sofa and I would hear the front door click but Kagome would still be there. That was Tek, the man she had met at the university that I knew nothing about, the one who introduced her to drugs."

"Finally two months and a half months ago I decided to search Kagome's room. I found those three drugs, Hashish, Cocaine and Heroin and the paraphernalia you use to do them."

"Who the fuck is this Teek guy?"

"All I know is that he goes to university and I haven't seen him since Kagome promised me she would never see him again or do drugs again."

"But she..."

"I know. I found a needle and heroin in her room again two weeks later. That was the night we confront her and she ran away. I haven't seen her since."

"Ojii had a bad stroke and he died. He had heart and blood pressure problems for years. But..."

"Kami..." InuYasha steeled himself.

"Kagome was here the day of his burial, she broke in and stole my jewelry for drug money."

"FUCKING KAMI KAGOME! How could she do such things? Why ...is she even still worth..."

Deki snatched his chin in her hand

"InuYasha, shut up right now!"

"But she..."

"Damn it InuYasha. Two years ... " She looked hard into his eyes. "For two years Kagome stayed by your side, waiting and hoping that you would love her, commit to her, and for two years you went back and forth between her and that Miko from the past, never making a choice or a commitment. Well this is it InuYasha."

Deki let him go and went to stand in front of the window.

"Kagome needs you. She needs you whether she is willing to see it or not so either you make a commitment to me...to my daughter... right now to stay by her side now when she needs you the way that she has always stood by you. Or, your free to spend the night, recover and in the morning you get your clothes and then leave my house...and Kagome's life...and this time, never come back. Either way...enough with the indecision. It's time for you to grow up and decide InuYasha. "

She turned from the window and went to the door. She stopped for a minute and looked at InuYasha.

"Do you love Kagome enough or not?"

"Enough?"

"Is your love for Kagome strong enough to take her back from the Black Dragon InuYasha?"

Deki left the room, closing the door behind her. InuYasha closed his eyes and pictured Kagome's face, Deki's question ringing in his ears.

"Is it strong enough?" He mumbled to himself

He didn't know.

He just didn't know anymore.

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-Hehehe Evil Cliffy!

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Sorry this Chapter was long in coming, but remember what I said before, because of the depressing and very heavy dark nature of this story it is something I have to be in a specific mood to work on and that mood can't be turned on like a light switch, nor is it a particularly nice place to be. Just please be patient Thanks and thanks for all the great reviews, you guys rock!! 

-CJ

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Scroll IIII Preview

A plan is made to take Kagome back and later is executed

But is InuYasha involved or has he abandoned Kagome once again?

Black Dragon

Scroll IIII

Coming Soon

_Dekigachi- intelligent sweetness_

_Inkei-something male_

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	4. Scroll IV

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-Warning: This fiction is a big departure from my usual works. It is very graphic and dark, containing unpleasant sexual situations and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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_Kagome smiled up at him, her eyes dancing in the sunlight. Her hair was tossed around her shoulders in the gentle early morning breeze and InuYasha chuckled, reaching over to tuck it back behind her ear. Useless, a minute later the wind only picked up and pulled it back out over her face again in soft curls as she laughed at his efforts._

"_Haven't you picked enough yet wench?"_

"_Ugh" Kagome rolled her eyes "Don't call me wench. I hate that."_

_InuYasha forced himself to concentrate on her words instead of his memories of how her hair looked as it flowed over her pillow as she slept at night. A sight that was becoming all too familiar the more he found himself lured from his tree branch to watch her sleep late at night._

"_What's wrong with calling you wench? You are a wench."_

"_It's sexist." Kagome looked at him through eyes that were anything but annoyed, they were beautiful and dreamy._

"_Maybe I am sexist." InuYasha grumped, having no idea what sexist meant, but secretly hoping it was something ecchi "Whatever that is."_

_Kagome giggled._

"_Well, duh, like I didn't know that from the moment you opened your eyes."_

_InuYasha raised an eyebrow "What's that suppose to mean wench?"_

"_You said it, I'm just agreeing with you." Kagome giggled, scooting away from InuYasha a little while she still could. "And don't call me wench dog-boy."_

"_Don't call me dog-boy." InuYasha scooted closer_

"_Don't call me wench." Kagome scooted away again_

"_Don't call me sexist." InuYasha moved closer again_

"_Fine, I'll quit calling you sexist if you quit calling me wench."Kagome said with a smug smile_

"_Deal" InuYasha said with a grin,. Not that this was over, oh no, not by a long shot. She looked way too smug._

"_Are you done yet..." He smirked "bitch?"_

_Kagome shot InuYasha the evil eye but was unable to hold it._

"_I'll show you a bitch, POOCH" With a giggle she tackled him and went for the one place she KNEW he was vulnerable intending to tickle him mercilessly. _

_His Ears._

"_Now what?" He tried to hold in his laughter , but it was a losing battle "I didn't call you wench!"_

_InuYasha tried to flip her off of him_

"_Thanks baka, bitch is so much better."_

_Kagome grinned down at him_

_InuYasha couldn't stop the cocky grin, his heart beat hard in his chest._

_Sweet kami... how he longed to kiss her..._

"_Your welcome"_

_In fact...he was going to kiss her..._

"_InuYasha! Kagome! What's taking you two so long?"_

_...after he killed that fucking kitsune._

InuYasha opened his eyes and sat up resting his back against the wall of Kagome's room. Damn it. He wanted her back. Not that false Kagome he had encountered on the streets, but HER. The Kagome who made his heart beat like that.

Deki's words still rang in his ears, regardless of the fact that the conversation was over hours ago.

**"_Damn it InuYasha. Two years ... For two years Kagome stayed by your side, waiting and hoping that you would love her, commit to her, and for two years you went back and forth between her and that Miko from the past, never making a choice or a commitment. Well this is it InuYasha."_**

**"_Kagome needs you. She needs you whether she is willing to see it or not so either you make a commitment to me...to my daughter... right now to stay by her side now when she needs you the way that she has always stood by you. Or, your free to spend the night, recover and in the morning you get your clothes and then leave my house...and Kagome's life...and this time, never come back. Either way...enough with the indecision. It's time for you to grow up and decide InuYasha. "_**

**"_Do you love Kagome enough or not?"_**

**"_Enough?"_**

**"_Is your love for Kagome strong enough to take her back from the Black Dragon InuYasha?"_**

InuYasha hadn't slept, he had rested, feeling skin and muscle knit back together over his chest and torso, repairing the damage that this new and frightening Kagome had done to him. But sleep had eluded him.

He had run the gamut of reaction and feelings, anger, pain, compassion , even fear. But no matter how dark and dismal the other thoughts became, there were things that remained unchanged, some feelings that never left him.

He loved Kagome. Kagome had been his savior, sure she had saved him from the tree, but it went deeper than that, she saved him from himself, from the yokai part that threatened to consume his humanity. She saved him from his human part, that would have recklessly thrown his life away seeking revenge. With her help, he had found a way to combine the two into a person that even his bastard of a brother was proud of.

He wanted Kagome back, HIS Kagome, the Kagome that he knew was still somewhere inside that other woman. He wanted her back with every part of his heart, mind, body and soul and he was willing to do whatever it took to bring her back.

WHATEVER IT TOOK.

Yes, His love WAS strong enough to take Kagome back from the Black Dragon and he was going to find her, no matter where she had run off to.

And this time, make no mistake about it, he WAS bringing Kagome home.

Home to the people who loved her.

Home to Deki.

Home to him.

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Black Dragon 

Scroll IV

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"Hey you! Bitch! No vagrants here!" 

Kagome felt the handle of a broom jab hard into her bony rib cage.

"Hey dopehead, this ain't no damn motel, get outta here."

She forced an eye open then slammed it shut when she was hit by the ray of bright sunshine.

"Hey!" The broom handle came down hard on the back of her head and she still didn't move, the next second Kagome saw stars as she was cracked across the face with the same broom handle.

"This is an office building, not a flop house for doped up hookers, now get the hell outta here tramp!"

Rage and a bloody nose propelled Kagome to her feet, her hands and legs shaking a mile a minute with the early signs of withdrawal. She needed a bathroom quick.

"Where's a bathroom?" she croaked out to the short fat sixty-ish old woman who stood glaring at her while she puffed on her cigarette, brandishing her broom, ready for another swing.

"I look like a tour guide? This ain't no public building, it ain't open to just anyone off the streets to just walk in and make themselves to home ya know."

"I'm bleeding you stupid cow, I need a bathroom." Kagome tried to pinch her nose to stop the bleeding, then wiped the blood off her face with her sleeve.

"Go to a gas station, we don't want your likes..." The woman stopped and looked at Kagome closely. "I know you, I kick you out of ...?"

"Kami stupid ass Bitch! Just tell me where a fucking bathroom is!" Kagome grabbed the woman by the front of her shirt and threw her against the wall.

"Through the door, down two flights on the left." The woman was wide eyed as she looked at Kagome.

"Was that so fucking hard?" Kagome started away, then realized she forgot her belt and turned back to get it. As she bent near the woman, the woman took her arm gently and looked at her closer.

"Tiny pet Kagome-chan."

"What?" Kagome was stunned

"Your Papa worked on the twenty-fourth floor and when you came to see him you always gave me a piece of butterscotch candy."

Kagome shook her head and turned away "Wasn't me"

"Kagome..." Kagome stopped but didn't turn around. " Kami child, what happened to you?"

Kagome snorted "That bitch died."

Kagome twisted on the door knob and ran down the stairs to the elevator bay, not stopping in the bathroom. She hit the street, then ran. Several blocks away she found a crawl space to hide in and shoot up.

"Mrs. Meshu. It just HAD to be Mrs. Fucking Meshu of all damn people to find me like that. FUCK." Kagome laughed bitterly

As a child Mrs. Meshu was one of Kagome's favorite people in the world. Kagome got dropped off at her fathers office two days a week, and on those days, Kagome would help clean her fathers office and the other offices in her fathers suite when Kagome's father had to work late. Mrs. Meshu would tell Kagome funny stories and jokes.

Her seeing Kagome like that was like a slap in the face, a snide reminder of who she could have been and the waste of humantiy she had become.

Kagome pulled the belt tight, tears springing to her eyes as she slid the needle into her arm.

She had gone too long without her protector, the one that kept the pain at bay, she was feeling far too much.

Kagome hadn't cried since Sota died, and now without the comfort of the Black Dragon, she was crying again.

As the euphoric fog crept into the recesses of her mind, she flashed back on words from the night before.

**_I'm gonna do what I do with everyone. I am take you until there is nothing but me inside of you. No mind, no heart, no soul. And then ..._**

**_I'm going to kill you._**

**Kagome was beginning to wish the Black Dragon would just hurry up and get it the fuck over with.**

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When InuYasha opened the bathroom door after taking a shower, he was accosted by the scent of tears heavy in the air. His ears picked up the echoes of crying coming from downstairs and he took off, flying down the stairs as fast as the clumsy construction would allow him to.

Fast enough to find himself in the middle of the kitchen dressed in only his hakema and fundoshi, with nothing hiding his unique ears from the kind, but curious and tear-filled eyes of Eri and Hojo.

"Fuck." Inuyasha blurted, his face bright red while he desperately tried to cover both his ears and naked chest while he backed away.

"It's okay InuYasha" Deki stepped forward with InuYasha's furisode and held it for him while he slid his arms in and tied it shut, tucking it into his hakema while still trying to cover his ears.

"InuYasha" She took his hands in hers "Really, its okay. They know about you."

"They..." He looked at them suspiciously as he sat at the table "How?"

"When we were married Kagome was high on something, cocaine probably." Hojo sighed sadly "We were trying to get her to go home with Deki-chan, and she started crying and told us the whole story."

"We didn't believe her until she showed us the picture in her wallet." Eri shook her head. "Kami! This is all my fault!" Eri started crying again and covered her face and sobbed into her hands.

"No dear! You must not blame yourself." Deki patted her shoulder then went in the other room to answer the phone.

"Did you give Kagome the drugs?" InuYasha asked, an honest but confused expression on his face.

Eri shook her head "No, but I was the one who talked Kagome into going to that stupid party at the university! That's where Kagome met that guy Tek and he's the one who gave her the drugs in the first place."

"By the time we realized what was going on...she wouldn't listen to any of us." Hojo sighed.

"Where the fuck is that Tek bastard now? Is Kagome with him?"

"I highly doubt that" Eri was tight lipped .

"When Kagome refused to have sex with him he forced the issue..." Hojo visibly clenched his teeth, an action InuYasha copied as well as slamming his fists so hard on the table the empty water glass in front of him shattered.

"HE FUCKING RAPED HER?!?!"

"Uh, no actually..." Hojo and Eri looked at each other and broke out in small grins. "Kagome beat the hell out of him."

InuYasha felt a small burst of pride run through him.

_'Thats my girl, thats my Kagome.'_

They grew silent as the clock ticked a few more minutes off, then Deki came in from the other room.

"InuYasha, Hojo." She sat down "A woman called who works in the building Kagome's Papa use to also work in. She found Kagome sleeping on the rooftop this morning. She just left, you should be able to pick up her scent easily InuYasha."

He nodded and got up, reaching for his hoari. Then stopped.

"What do I do when I find her?"

He rubbed his hand unconsciously over the risen bits of skin where her knife had plunged into him just the day before.

"There is a detoxification center you must bring her to. I called them and they are expecting us. Eri and I will pack a bag for Kagome and meet you and Hojo there with Kagome."

"Hojo?"

It wasn't that he wasn't grateful for the help. He knew more than anyone after yesterday just what Kagome was capable of.

"InuYasha, you need help to do this, Kagome already hurt you once. Let Hojo drive and you get Kagome and keep her calm while he drives. Okay?"

She slapped a new white bandanna on his head then spun him around to tie it.

"You know...maybe my clothes..." InuYasha looked at Deki and she nodded.

"I have just the thing."

Deki smiled and appeared a moment later bearing jeans and a t-shirt she had long hoped to see on InuYasha.

The fit was perfect.

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InuYasha fought tears as he looked down at the passed out girl. Pale skin stretched grotesquely over her skeletal frame, black and blue from various slaps and punches in places, dirty and smelling in all. Blood dribbled from her nose and the corner of her mouth and both eyes were black and blue, swollen nearly shut from an earlier encounter with a cleaning womans broom. 

But her arms...her arms were bruised from top to bottom, and various needle tracks laced the inside of her elbows.

"Be careful" Hojo whispered softly into InuYasha's ear "The longer she is asleep the less stress on her."

InuYasha nodded as he gently lifted Kagome up into his arms.

KAMI! She weighed nothing, Shippo was heavier to carry around! Her natural scent was absent, half drowned out by the filth of her body and hair and the rest by the gaining strength of the poison of the Black Dragon.

Hojo tossed her jacket into the back of the car then held the door open for InuYasha to lay Kagome down, not surprised in the least when he slid in himself and held her in his lap against him, her stench nearly gagging him, yet forcing him on at the same time. Making him more and more determined that she was coming back.

Kagome was coming back.

His Kagome.

Kagome began to stir a few miles from the detoxification center.

"Where..."

"It's okay Kagome, try to sleep." InuYasha rubbed her back, hoping she would go back to sleep.

No such luck.

"Fuck sleep. What the fuck is this shit? You fucking perverts, into kidnapping now? Where's my jacket?" Kagome struggled to sit up.

"It's over there."

"Let me go" She pushed against InuYasha but he wasn't moving, she reached for her knife.

"I broke it in half and tossed it, don't bother."

" Let me the fuck go!"

"Why?"

"I want my jacket dumb ass."

"Why?"

"I'm fucking cold okay?"

"Why didn't you say so."

InuYasha wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her close against his chest.

"What the ...let me go."

InuYasha rested his forehead against the side of her head.

"I can't ...I can't Kagome..."

She was silent and stopped struggling

"I made the mistake of letting you go once, I won't again."

"What do you care." Kagome began struggling again, harder and more violently "Go fuck your clay doll and leave me alone bastard!" She freed a hand and punched him hard in the face, bloodying his mouth and her knuckle.

He only pulled her closer, tucking her hand into his.

A moment later the reached the detoxification center and Hojo came around to open the door. InuYasha slid out with Kagome, still locked in his arms.

They were met by two orderlies who took Kagome from InuYasha and lay her on a gurney, she quickly punched them both and ended up in soft restraints, her hands fastened to the rails on the side.

InuYasha had a fit.

"InuYasha, it's okay...it's just until she is in her room."

"It's as much for her safety as ours" The nurse assured him with a reassuring pat on the arm. InuYasha looked at Kagome and she gave him the finger.

"Hey, what's your name sweetheart?" One of the orderlies attempted to distract Kagome

"It's fuck you limp dick"

Deki walked up to the gurney.

"Mama...your not gonna leave me here are you?"

"This is the only way."

"Can I at least have my jacket?"

"There's a sweater in the bag I packed."

"Is it true? What I read on that sign at the shrine? Did Gramps really die?"

Deki closed her eyes and nodded sadly.

"You have to get better Kagome, we are all we have left. Just you and me, and now we have InuYasha again."

"FUCK InuYasha! I HATE InuYasha! Everything is his fault! He's just gonna leave again, he always does."

The nurse came and took Deki's hand. "It's best that you leave now."

"Wait!" Kagome screamed "You can't mean to really leave me here."

Deki kissed Kagome's cheek

"Wait...I want my Jacket before you go...I'm freezing to death."

InuYasha approached and kissed her on the other cheek.

"Don't touch me! Kami I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

InuYasha kept walking

"I HATE YOU YOU DEAD CLAY WHORE FUCKING FAGGOT!"

He didn't turn around.

"I WISH I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU!! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!!! I WISH I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU YA FUCKING QUEER!"

"I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!"

The doors slid closed behind him as his first tears began to fall.

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Having parted with Hojo and Eri at the detoxification center, InuYasha and Deki were quiet, lost in their thoughts of Kagome on their way back to the shrine. They stopped along the way and picked up take out, then sat at the table shoving food back and forth on their plates. 

It was the first time Deki had seen Kagome since she had run away, and nothing could have prepared her for the sight of her once vibrant and alive daughter, looking for all the world like a living corpse. But even as bad as that was, it paled in comparison to the things that had come from her mouth.

Judging by the expression on InuYasha's face, they were the very things that he was now taking very much to heart. The truth was, InuYasha could handle her accusations and slurs against Kikyo, or being called ridiculous untrue names. Now some of his greatest pain came from the worry that she really did wish she had killed him, but even worse was the fear that she had meant those three horrible words that she had gotten so much pleasure from saying.

I hate you.

Odd, she had said it the exact same number of times she had stabbed him. But the damage from this was even worse, his heart was laying open, leaving him to bleed to death.

He was starting to wish it would just hurry it the fuck up.

How the hell much more pain could he take?

InuYasha jumped when the phone rang. He rolled his eyes at his jumpiness and Deki patted his shoulder as she went to answer the kitchen phone. He glanced at Kagome's jacket that lay on top of the washer, wondering exactly why she had wanted it so bad. Did she have drugs in it or ...

InuYasha barely ducked in time to miss the flying water glass before it slammed against the wall.

"SHIT!" Deki screamed out "SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

InuYasha was too shocked to move as Deki slid weakly into a chair and looked at InuYasha.

"Kagome had another knife hidden inside a shoe. After she showered and changed she got the knife and forced her way out."

InuYasha looked at Deki blankly, understanding what she meant, but not understanding at the same time.

"InuYasha, Kagome is back out on the streets."

InuYasha's eyes landed on Kagome's jacket again and he stood and went to retrieve it.

"We don't even know where to look now"

Deki sat with her face in her palms while InuYasha slashed at the inside liner where it had been cut and then sewn back shut, then reached in with his claws.

"Yeah we do." InuYasha said sadly "We know right where she will come."

Deki looked up and looked at InuYasha, her attention going immediately to what he now held in his fist.

"Kagome will come here...

She will come for the Black Dragon."

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My apologies that it took so long to update!!! 

Like I said...I gotta be in a certain mood to write this stuff, so PLEASE PLEASE be patient!

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Scroll V preview

Kagome returns home in search of the Black Dragon

Instead, she finds something entirely different.

A pissed off hanyou and a mother who is

fed up and willing to allow him to do anything

he thinks is best to help her daughter.

InuYasha has a plan...

who will win?

InuYasha

or

The Black Dragon?

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-Save the flames for my having Kagome use derogatory terms for homosexuals. I highly doubt someone in Kagome's position would be too concerned about being politically correct. I don't mean to insult anyone, it's just being real k?

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	5. Scroll V

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property if Rumiko Takahashi

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-Warning: This work of fiction is very graphic and dark, containing strong language, violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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_It was one of those rare days, so beautiful that even InuYasha didn't have it in his heart to be grumpy. The weather was perfect, one of the first true fall days without the humidity that had made travel so uncomfortable for the past few months._

_A slight shimmering up ahead caught Kagome's attention._

" _Sango, look"_

"_Oh...how pretty. And a waterfall too. Say we should stop for lunch soon, don't you think?"_

"_Yes, I suppose so."Kagome giggled "But if we stop there I will never want to leave."_

"_Me either" Sango's giggled mixed with Kagome's and they looked at one another._

"_You know, it's been awhile since we have taken a whole afternoon to just goof off." Kagome grinned_

"_And it's not like we are chasing Naraku anymore, so there is no real drastic need to hurry..."_

_They looked at one another and a rock solid conspiracy was born...and sealed on a burst of giggles. Kagome began to turn around..._

"Sango! Sango!" Shippo called out "Look who's come ?"

Sango stepped from the hut where she had been grinding yokai bone into scythe blades to see what the commotion was about.

"What is it Shippo?"

"Look Sango! On my head!" Shippo giggled

"Myoga! What brings you?" Sango smiled warily at the elderly vassal.

"A matter of dire importance I am afraid. My Lord requests your assistance at once in the forest of InuYasha."

Sango held her breath, her eyes skittered away.

"I'm sorry Myoga, I can't get away right now."

"This is not the time for petty grievances Sango, this is a matter of life and death."

"With InuYasha everything is life and death..."

"This is not about InuYasha! It is Lady Kagome."

"Kagome? What about Kagome?"

"Kagome is in very serious danger, to save her it will take all of you, without you, she will likely die."

"So Miroku will..."

"Sango! Forget about Miroku and Forget about InuYasha! We have to save Kagome!" Shippo was near tears, his eyes pleading.

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"_InuYasha, Miroku, look!" Kagome turned to them, her smile even brighter than the sunny day as she pointed out the small crystal clear pond and waterfall._

"_Yeah, it's water...you've seen lots of water Kagome, what about it?" InuYasha forced as much attitude into his voice as possible, but Miroku's chuckle next to him made it pretty clear that he had failed badly._

"_Well, we were thinking we could stop and just enjoy the day."_

"_You thought what?" He found it a little easier that time, but truth be told they were wandering in no particular direction, in no particular hurry. The irritation came from what he knew Kagome wanted him to do at the pond...or more specifically wear._

"_Oh come on InuYasha" Sango joined in, throwing her support behind Kagome. "It's not like we are in a hurry to get anywhere."_

"_They have a point InuYasha." Miroku grinned, stepping up to the girls in a show of solidarity. Had Shippo not stayed behind with Kaede because of a hurt foot, it would have been five to one, since Kirara always sided with the girls._

"_Come on InuYasha" Kagome pouted "We can go swimming, the water should be nice and warm."_

"_I knew it! You just want to make me wear that weird water fundoshi!"_

"_I do not! And they're called swimming trunks" Kagome blushed and rolled her eyes._

"_I happen to like mine, much better than swimming in robes." Miroku smiled "And we can swim together with it being perfectly innocent"_

"_You too Miroku? What about finding Kohaku?"_

"_We haven't had a trace of Kohaku in weeks, not even a rumor." Sango said sadly. "I appreciate how hard everyone has been pushing themselves, but I think we could all use some time to rest"_

"_Well, I say we let InuYasha stand here and pout if that is how he wishes to spend his day" Sango nodded to Kagome_

"_I agree. My dear, shall we?" Miroku offered Sango an elbow and she smiled and accepted, allowing him to lead her to the pond._

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Miroku stood up and stretched his back. Nothing felt better after several hours of solid meditation than feeling everything click back into the right places when he cracked his back afterwards.

"Master Mushin?" he called out for his mentor and received no answer, a quick glance around showed him to be nowhere inside the temple. He went to the door to find him talking with a man who was vaguely familiar.

"Ah, Miroku, this man is Tosu, he comes to bring you an urgent message from InuYasha."

Miroku clenched his teeth, if anything could shatter his sense of peace it was the mention of that name. He turned around.

"I have no interest in anything concerning hanyou. Good day."

"But Houshi-sama, InuYasha was your friend for many years." Tosu plead "I was sent by Lady Kaede and told it is a matter of life and death."

"InuYasha was unconcerned when it was a matter of my well-being."

"Houshi..."

"Good day Tosu, my regards to Lady Kaede." Miroku turned and swiftly went inside the temple, followed a few minutes later by Master Mushin who stood over him glaring and interrupting his attempts to meditate.

"Miroku, allow me to read your palm"

"Not now."

"Indulge me."

"If you will leave me alone after, fine." Miroku presented his hand.

"Interesting...you have five minutes to live."

"Five minutes?"

"Yes, five minutes"

"How can this be?"

"Because I am going to kill you if you do not read this message from InuYasha after that kind man traveled to bring it to you."

Master Mushin dropped the scroll in Miroku's lap and turned away. Miroku sighed and tossed it aside and attempted to go back to his meditation, but now curiosity had him.

_Miroku, I, need you, get your ass back here ._

_If you don't come on your own I'm coming to drag you_

_It ain't for me, It's for Kagome._

_She's in trouble Miroku._

_She needs us, all of us, together._

_Please...I'm desperate._

_InuYasha_

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_Kagome and InuYasha remained, Kagome looking sadly at the ground. InuYasha approached her and caught the scent of her tears._

"_Kagome?" _

_She lowered her head, turning from him slightly._

"_It's okay Kagome, I don't really mind much."_

_A tear rolled from her face to plop on the dusty road. InuYasha lifted her chin on his finger, her eyes were filled with sadness and unshed tears._

"_Kagome? What's wrong?"_

"_Oh InuYasha! I'm so selfish!" she choked out, covering her face with her hands. InuYasha pulled her into his arms, shocked and confused as to what could possibly be making her so miserable._

_He stroked her soft hair and spoke gentle words into her ear. "Are you crazy? You are the most unselfish person I have ever known. "_

_Kagome's fingers grasped his hoari tightly, holding on as if trying to draw comfort from him._

"_But you were right, were suppose to be looking for Kohaku, not taking days off to enjoy ourselves. Not when he is out there all alone and maybe scared."_

"_It's okay to rest sometimes Kagome. Besides, I don't think you are even capable of being selfish." InuYasha kissed her hair, so softly she couldn't have felt it._

"_But what if we miss saving him by one day? Then it will be all my fault cause this was my idea and... EEEEPP INUYASHA!"_

_InuYasha scooped Kagome up and threw her over his shoulder and marched to where the others stood watching them._

"_You damn baka! I know how you are when your like this" He said stomping toward the pond "You want to blame yourself for everything and call yourself names and you won't listen to reason no matter what I say."_

"_INUYASHA!"_

"_So there is just no point in talking, besides, like you always say, actions speak louder than words."_

_Much to the approval and laughter of the other two who stood watching, he shifted her to carry her in his arms bridal style._

"_I'll say the word!" she threatened, trying to suppress her girn_

"_I'll just squash you then, not to mention the embarrassing position we would find ourselves in, me on top of you, and right in front of Miroku and Sango too."_

"_InuYasha you damn ecchi PIG!"_

"_Hmmm ecchi am I? Wonder what a ecchi like me could find to do with his hands while he was pinned down on top of a grouchy miko"_

"_You ...you...wouldn't dare!" Kagome looked at InuYasha with a dangerous glint in her eye that mixed beautifully with the mirth._

"_I wouldn't huh?" InuYasha shot her his sexiest yet cockiest grin, yet as he neared the water, Kagome began to panic slightly._

"_Have you gone CRAZY InuYasha? Just what the hell do you think your doing?"_

"_Going swimming."_

_InuYasha shot Kagome his most mischievous grin; then jumped into the pond, still holding Kagome. They surfaced laughing and spluttering together, she dunked him and he wrapped his arms around her as he resurfaced._

_Kami, there was nothing like the feeling of her against him..._

_Nothing..._

_- _

* * *

_- _

InuYasha looked at the newly secured formerly abandoned hut that sat deep inside his forest. He could smell their scents drawing closer.

Sango the Taijiya, Miroku the houshi, Shippo the kitsune.

Once he would have called them family, now, they were Kagome's best chance. Maybe her only chance.

He turned and ran for the well. She had to be out of the money that Deki had packed in the bag at the detox center.

Tonight she would be coming, searching for the Black Dragon.

Tonight Deki and InuYasha were ready. Ready to take her back.

And this time, this time it was for good.

Tonight was the night InuYasha would slay the Black Dragon,

Tonight Kagome was coming home.

And she was coming home to stay.

* * *

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-Black Dragon 

-Scroll V

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-

* * *

Kagome lethargically climbed the stairs of the abandoned office building, every bone in her body was aching, her muscles cramped and spazzing. 

Fuck, she needed a pop.

She hadn't since that morning, when she had used the last she had bought with the money the bitch and that cocksucker had left her at that prison they tried to dump her in.

Fucking mother and InuYasha. Mommy and Inu, what the fuck. When had they gotten so fucking close anyway? Were they fucking now? Did that baka kuso ttare not just like the dead ones but the ancient ones too?

Screw em. Kagome didn't care if she ever saw them again.

But she had to see them again, she knew she did.

FUCK! Why the hell had she taken her jacket off when she laid down?

All that money, her rig, ...all the...

_Black Dragon..._

_'Hell Kagome why do you hide me behind street names? Why not call me what I am? You chicken?' _

All her...heroin...was sewn inside the lining of that fucking jacket, she had to go get it.

Kagome reached the twelfth floor and shoved the door open.

"Hey Kaori, you here?" she yelled "Hope you got some of that left that I gave you...you won't believe what the..."

Kagome turned the corner to find Kaori still on the mattress.

"Hey, lazy ass, you sleep all day?" Kagome knelt down by the girl, noticing right away the half filled needle still laying between her fingers, the still tightened belt around the skinny arm, the dried blood-vomit between her mouth and the mattress.

Dead, open eyes stared endlessly at an unseen point on the ceiling.

"Fuck no" Kagome stared at the thirteen year old girls face, unable to look away from the empty brown eyes. "What the fuck did you do Kaori? What the ..." Kagome looked around her body, finally spotting the bag that she had given the girl the day before that should have lasted a week.

It was empty.

"You overdosed you fucking idiot!? I told you that wasn't cut yet!" Kagome punched the wall hard, bloodying her knuckles "Goddamn you fucking stupid bitch!"

Kagome wanted to cry, to sob loud and painfully for the death of her friend. No tears would come. Not a single one.

She took the needle, slipped her belt around her arm and afraid to use too much of the same needle that killed Kaori, she used just enough to get her out of withdrawal, then capped the needle and saved the rest.

She looked out the window at the black night.

Gineo was dead, working a deal for the dragon was out.

She was out of money, she had to take back the Black Dragon.

She had no other choice,

Kagome had to go to the shrine.

* * *

-

* * *

Deki sighed deeply in the dark room as InuYasha handed her another cup of tea. The Grandfather clock downstairs had just chimed three am not long before, it was starting to look like her calculations might have been off, that or Kagome was more resourceful than either of them had given the girl credit for. 

She could still hear Kagome demanding her jacket the day they had taken her to the detox center, she knew perfectly well how stubborn Kagome could be, and she found it nearly impossible to believe that she would just give up on getting all the heroin and money that InuYasha had found in the lining of the jacket. They was counting on that stubbornness. If they were wrong they could lose their last chance.

"Goshinboku misses them."

Deki looked up from where she sat on the bed to where InuYasha stood watching the shrine courtyard below.

"What do you mean InuYasha?"

"Goshinboku is sad, it misses Sota-chan and Ojii, and it is scared for Kagome."

"How do you know?" She stood to stand by him and stare at the old tree.

"I'm not crazy" He said with a small, sad smile "I spent fifty years pinned to Goshinboku, sometimes I can just feel things about it and I know it can feel things about me."

"You mean it talks to your heart?" Her question was curious, not doubting.

"Yeah."

"What does it say?" InuYasha looked at her and she looked away from him sadly to gaze back upon the ancient tree. "About Sota and Kagome. Does it think I was a bad mother and that I failed them?"

"Are you nuts? InuYasha looked at her incredulously "I don't need the tree to answer that."

Deki couldn't bring herself to look at InuYasha.

"I use to envy Kagome and Sota, for having such a mother. When we first met, Kagome use to go on and on about her mama and how wonderful she was and me? I just rolled my eyes, figuring she was exaggerating, because, no parent could possibly be that great, that "there" for their family. Specially a mother who didn't have a father to help, and had to do the work of both."

"It was never easy" She admitted "Grandpa helped a lot, more than he ever knew."

"Once I came here and met you I saw that like I thought, Kagome was wrong, you were even better than she said."

Deki laughed and elbowed him "Don't lie InuYasha, you can have all the ramen you want."

InuYasha chuckled a little "Not lying. You welcomed me, and allowed me to be a part of your family. Even now after I screwed up and Kagome was hurt in the process."

"InuYasha, you must not blame yourself."

He nodded and was quiet for a moment.

"It wants Kagome to come home"

Deki looked at him.

"Goshinboku" He sighed sadly, his eyes sharpening on movement in the brush around the house.

"It wants Kagome to come home"

He put his finger to his lips to signal for quiet, and motioned for Deki to stand clear of the window as he moved clear himself. Long seconds stretched past them feeling more like minutes before the lock on the window was jimmied open.

Slowly the screen slid to the side, then the inner storm window and a small figure quietly dropped to the floor.

InuYasha flicked the lamp on.

"Welcome home Kagome."

* * *

-

* * *

Kagome stared into the mirror over the sink while the bath water ran behind her. 

"_FINE But before you take me back can I at least take a fucking bath?"_

Who the hell was this looking back her? She wasn't even eighteen yet and already white hair mingled in with the black. Her face was hollow, haunting. Bruised and way too thin.

"_We want to help you because we love you Kagome! Please let us help you!"_

But she didn't need help. She could quit if she wanted, she just didn't want to.

Kagome sank down into the hot water, cherishing the warmth of the water spreading over her body.

InuYasha had come for her...didn't that mean...

What? What did that mean?

It hadn't really meant shit in the past, why should now be any different?

"_Kagome...please, I can't stand seeing you like this!"_

Like that was anything new. Was she ever good enough for him? Would she ever be?

Her hands were shaking something horrible.

"_This crap your doing is killing you Kagome! It's fucking killing you!"_

Kagome reached for her jeans.

Just one more time...just enough to stop the withdrawal.

* * *

-

* * *

Kagome... 

I've come for you Kagome.

_Bang! bang! Bang!_

_Kagome! Kagome!_

_Bang! bang! Bang!_

_Kagome! Please...let us in!_

**Who...Who are you?**

_If you don't answer the door I'm busting the fucking thing down!_

_Bang! bang! Bang!_

_Kagome! Kagome!_

_Bang! bang! Bang!_

_Last fucking chance Kagome!_

You know who I am.

_BANG! SHATTER! SPLINTER!_

_Kagome!_

_Oh Kami! Kami No!_

_She's breathing InuYasha...but, it's weak._

_Is she...Is she..._

_Stay with her while I call an ambulance._

_Kagome...Don't you leave me! Don't you DARE FUCKING LEAVE ME BITCH! KAGOME!!!_

**InuYasha...InuYasha's crying**

Who fucking cares.

**I ...care.**

I told you, your mine.

**What if I don't want to be yours anymore...?**

Too fucking bad, even if you don't die this time, I'll get you next time.

**Who says there will be a next time?**

Right good one slut, you can't live without me, you'd steal for me, you'd lie for me, you'd sell your body for me. Your mine...My bitch, my cunt, my whore.

Everything faded to white, then slowly came back into focus. It was still night and Kagome was moving, being bumped back and forth side to side.

**InuYasha?**

_I'm here Kagome, see, I'm right here, holding your hand. Can you hear me_

**I hear you InuYasha! Why...why can't I feel you holding my hand?**

Nii-chan I never thought you of all people would be so selfish.

**Sota-chan! Sota! You...**

Yeah, just when Mama needed you, you selfish bitch.

The darkness faded to white again.

_Doctor her heart rate is all over the place_

_Damn it! Try Narcan 80 mgs _

Stupid little girl throwing your life away not caring if you hurt Inuyasha.

**Kikyo?! Who are you to judge me!**

I'm not the one in cardiac arrest from a heroin overdose my dear reincarnation. What InuYasha did, sending you away, he did to protect you. Now you toss him away and for what? One who fucks you, uses you, wants to kill you.

_Doctor...she's stabilizing_

_Okay, 'he sighed running a tired hand through his hair' _ _were going to have to relieve her withdrawal while her heart is weak, lets go with methadone, usual dosage plus ten. Twenty-four hours then home with a weeks supply and referrals. After that shes on her own, back to the streets, back to the party, whoop dee fucking doo, see you again in a month or two._

_Your not committing her Doctor_

_why bother, it never does any good._

Ya hear that bitch? No one cares if you die or not. You are mine.

_Kagome? I'm ...were here. See I promised I would never leave you again. Your mom's here too, she just went to get some tea._

Inuyasha picked up her hand and held it.

**You lie...**

**that's what YOU want me to believe. I am my own, and I am mama's, I am InuYasha's.**

**I'm not yours anymore.**

Yeah...what are you gonna do about it? You can't live without me!

**I will fight you.**

You ain't got the balls, or the strength.

**Maybe not alone...but I do...with him.**

Kagome squeezed InuYasha's hand.

* * *

-

* * *

"Kagome? Kagome? ..." 

Kagome opened her eyes, trying hard to focus on the face in front of her. It was blurry, but two spots of gold stood out from the too slow to clear blur.

"Inuyasha?" she whispered softly as his face finally came into focus. She blinked, sending a river to wet the pillowcase under her cheek.

"I'm here Kagome, your mom too, she'll be right back." He brushed his fingers gently through her hair, finger combing out the tangles.

"I don't want to do it anymore" she whispered

"I'll do anything I can to help you Kagome. Anything."

"I'm scared InuYasha."

"Scared?" his voice was more gentle than she had ever heard it, more gentle, she decided, than she deserved.

Kagome felt the need to pop overwhelm her and she gripped InuYasha's hand

tightly, clinging to him out of fear and hopelessness.

"I need it InuYasha. I need it cause I'll die without it."

"Kagome" His voice was pleading, hoping to reach through her fear. "You..."

"You should leave InuYasha."

"Kagome! I'm not leaving you behind! Damn it, how many times do I..."

"You don't get it, do you? You fucking moron! I am already dead!" Kagome screamed "If I do it, I'll die" She whispered, tears pouring onto the pillowcase. "If I don't do it I'll die."

InuYasha set his jaw tightly and lifted her face to his.

"I'm not giving up. No fucking way. Even if I have to grab you off the fucking streets every fucking day " He kissed her forehead softly while cupping her cheek in his hand, gently stroking it with his thumb.

"I will NEVER give up on you Kagome. NEVER!"

* * *

-

* * *

-

* * *

-

* * *

-

* * *

Scroll VI Preview

Kagome returns to the past

The Others Arrive In the Village shortly after InuYasha and Kagome

How will they handle the truth behind the horrific reality of the

Black Dragon?

InuYasha has sworn to not give up, In her heart Kagome doesn't want him to.

But as the methadone wears off withdrawal begins.

Kagome's resolve wears thin. How far will she resort in her efforts to escape

her friends good intentions?

InuYasha, Sango, and Miroku

face the toughest test a friendship could ever imagine.

Old wounds remain, scars run deep. But the close knit bond of love

that once united them into a force strong enough to defeat Naraku, the

greatest evil the world had ever known, still remains.

Is their love strong enough to save Kagome from the

Black Dragon?

* * *

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* * *

-

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-

* * *

-

* * *

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* * *

-

* * *


	6. Scroll VI

* * *

-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

* * *

-

* * *

Warning: This work of fiction is very graphic and dark, containing strong language, violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

* * *

-

* * *

-

* * *

_Kagome twisted nervously in her loafers, tugging on the light blue skirt of her primary school uniform._

"_Mama, do you think the other kids will like me?"_

_Deki smiled and clipped a barrette into place in Kagome's thick black curls._

_"Of course they will"_

"_But I won't know anyone Mama, that school is such a big place."_

"_I know dear, it's different than the school you are use to, but your a big girl now, much too big to go to pre-school. Think of it as a great adventure."_

_Kagome screwed up her face and stuck out her tongue at herself in the mirror. _

"_That's what you said when you told me I was getting a new little brother or sister."_

"_That's right, and hasn't Sota been an adventure?"_

_Kagome rolled her eyes_

"_Mostly he just cries, poops and sleeps."_

_Deki laughed "Well, he's only a month old Kagome, you will see, when he is older."_

_Deki took Kagome's hand and led her down the long set of stairs to the bus stop._

"_Mama, do you think the other kids will like me?"_

_Deki looked down at Kagome, tears glistened on her lashes as she fought to hold them back. She pulled Kagome into a hug._

"_If you just be yourself Kagome, how could they do anything but adore you?"_

"Well, I guess were ready to go then." InuYasha stirred Deki from her thoughts as she sat quietly staring at the wall, Kagome's head in her lap, her hand brushing over the silky strands of her just washed hair.

"You have taken everything you will need through the well? You are sure now that you have forgotten nothing?"

InuYasha knelt down beside the bed, his fingers fluttered nervously over the too thin face "Everything but Kagome."

"They sent her home from the hospital so quickly, and after she came so close to dying."

"Keh, I don't understand anything about this. But, that healer made her heart start working again after it stopped, that's enough for me to trust him."

"We better go now." He whispered, taking Kagome from the arms of her mother, anxious to get her through the well and to the hut set up for her before the sedation she was under wore off.

"Will this work InuYasha?" Deki looked over at him, her eyes pleading for reassurance. "Will this bring my Kagome back?"

"It will."

He swung his legs over the window frame then jumped to the ground and ran for the well house.

He frowned nervously as he shifted Kagome in his arms and jumped into the well.

"It's has to"

* * *

-

* * *

-Black Dragon

-Scroll VI

* * *

-

* * *

Miroku felt his insides twisting the closer he got to the forest of InuYasha and the village that had once almost been his home, the place that once held so much promise for happiness.

After awhile there were familiar landmarks everywhere. Tree's where he and the woman he had loved had shared a sweet interlude or a gentle kiss, rocks where they had sat and talked of the future, not whether or not to have children but how many they would have. He smiled now, remembering how at one point when he had been particularly in her good graces, he had convinced her to bless him with twenty.

His smile faded as the grouping of rocks vanished from his sight. Those days were over, and as much as he had been able to lay the blame at the hanyou's feet back then, being back here in this place, he couldn't help but feel the truth.

But that didn't mean he had to admit it. Least of all to himself.

He stood now within the familiar village, greeted now and then by the familiar. Had it really only been six months since he had left? It felt like much longer. It felt like...more like...an eternity.

"Miroku, ye have arrived at last."

Miroku turned to greet the elderly miko who was like family.

"Lady Kaede. I just now reached the village. Tell me, where is the hanyou that summoned me?"

Kaede squinted her one good eye at the houshi, it was a small gesture but it was enough to make her disgust with his callous comment clear.

"The hanyou that summoned ye? Bah! What kind of foolishness is that Miroku?"

"I just..."

"Ye best forget about' I 'and think beyond yourself." She sighed deeply and signaled for him to follow her as she lead the way from the village.

"I meant no disrespect." he sighed, forcing himself to remember that he was here for Kagome, not himself and definitely not for InuYasha.

"Towards who ? Myself? What of InuYasha? I warn ye houshi, he is not the one ye and the others left behind, nor is Kagome the girl she once was."

"InuYasha only said she was in trouble."

"Aye."

"What kind of trouble?"

"This I shall let ye see for yourself" she pointed to a hut that was heavily covered in sutras

"All of this for Kagome?" Miroku scoffed "I don't believe it."

Before Kaede could answer the flap opened and InuYasha stepped out to dump a basin of water. He looked up and saw Miroku standing with Kaede, then set the basin inside and stepped back out.

"InuYasha" Kaede bowed slightly, handing him a sack of fresh vegetables "How is Kagome?"

InuYasha all but ignored the question, fixing Miroku with a look.

"You came."

"For Kagome." Miroku nodded, making clear that had it been for InuYasha alone, he would have done otherwise.

"You should go in and see her. She just went to sleep though for the first time since yesterday afternoon, so be careful not to wake her."

Miroku nodded and started towards the hut.

"Miroku" Miroku stopped and looked at InuYasha again. "She's not like before, she looks..." InuYasha trailed off shaking his head. There was no way to describe what Kagome looked like. Like Kaede had, Miroku would have to see for himself.

Miroku nodded in understanding, then did a double take, glancing back over his shoulder to see InuYasha brush at his eyes. But what he thought he was seeing, it was impossible...wasn't it?

InuYasha couldn't be standing out in broad daylight, openly crying.

Could he?

Miroku decided his eyes were playing tricks on him and stepped inside the dark hut.

* * *

-

* * *

InuYasha swiped at the tired tears that threatened as he watched Miroku walk closer to the entrance of the hut. It reminded him so much of the day that he had turned into the alley and found Kagome on her knees in front of the drug dealer he had killed. The day that Kagome had taken a six inch knife and stabbed him in the chest and gut seven times, then shot up in front of him.

He wished that he could save the others from seeing Kagome like this, but there was no way around it, he needed them too damn much.

"InuYasha, will ye answer my question now?"

Kaede looked at him, her expression full of concern.

"Huh? Oh, yeah...sorry. I gave her the last of the methadone this morning, thats the stuff from her healer. But having to taper down her doses yesterday was rough. She started having signs of withdrawal last night."

"Such as what?"

"She couldn't sleep mostly, but the cravings have started. I knew they would be bad but...damn it Kaede, she sounds like she is fucking dying and I feel like I am the one killing her by not letting her get to the well."

"Ye must remember InuYasha, what it is that she wants on the other side of the well. You must not forget that it is what she wants that is going to kill her, but it is you and the others that are going to save her."

"InuYasha! InuYasha!"

InuYasha wiped his face and worked up a smile for the small kitsune who was bounding through the forest towards him, the yokai slayer hot on his heels.

"Hey Shippo" Shippo jumped into his arms and squeezed his neck

"Is Kagome okay? Is she huh InuYasha?"

"Not yet Shippo."

"InuYasha, Kaede."

"Sango." Kaede nodded

"InuYasha, please tell me about Kagome. Since Myoga came I've been so scared."

InuYasha sent Shippo into the village with Kaede, the kit went grudgingly but after threats and candy bribes, Pocky laced cajoling he finally agreed. InuYasha turned to Sango to begin the process of preparing her to see Kagome, instead they were interrupted by a scream from the hut.

It didn't come from Kagome.

* * *

-

* * *

Kagome felt like her body was going to shake itself into a fine powder. She was freezing cold under the piles of blankets that InuYasha had heaped on her earlier when she had said she felt chilly, yet buckets and buckets of sweat soaked her thin pajama's clean through.

Maybe that was why she was dying of thirst.

"Inu...ya..sha? Water please?" she gasped out, shocked to hear her teeth chattering together.

_'Your all alone bitch. He brought you and dumped you here to die. Fitting end for a slut like you.'_

**'No! InuYasha brought me here to help me. To get me off the streets and away from...'**

_'Yeah, away from the one thing that makes you feel good. Why ya think it is he hates it so much that you were happy?'_

**'I wasn't...'**

_'Bullshit! He dont care about you! He just thinks he has to be number one all the time. He can't stand it if your happy without him.'_

**'No! That's not...true.**

_'What about Koga? Huh? Or Hojo? He only cares about you when his place as number one is threatened. Any other time he's off fucking HER the chia pet. KIKYO!!'_

**'no...no...NO!!!'**

_'He dont love you, does he make you feel like I do?'_

**'I don't want you anymore!'**

_'Yeah you do, who you trying to kid? You want me so bad right now you'd suck off your own father to get me. You want to feel that sting when I hit the skin and burn my way through your blood in your veins.'_

**'No! _yes!._..no!'**

_'You want that rush, fuck cunt, you NEED that rush, your ready to do ANYTHING for it. Lie, Steal cheat kill...you'd fuck a REAL Black Dragon with a flaming cock of thorns right now for that rush.'_

**'No! Go away! Go! I don't want you! I don't!'**

_'You do, don't lie to me bitch, we both know you want me'_

**'No!'**

_'Yes! You want me like a slut wants cock'_

**'No...noooo'**

_'say it whore! Say you want me!'_

**'Noo'**

_'SAY IT BITCH! Say it or I'll fucking kill you right now!'_

Kagome began shaking violently, her bones aching from the tiniest dropsof her bone marrow to the tips of the cartilage. Tears ran from her eyes and she buried her face in her pillow. A faint light from outside flashed over her as someone entered the hut.

Kagome gnashed her teeth together and whispered

**'I want you!'**

_'Don't you forget who you belong to cunt' _a vision of Naraku appeared behind Kagome's eyes

_'Only I can set you free, only I can take the pain away. That fucking dog left you here to die, dumped you off on the perverted houshi. _

_Here's your chance Kagome...you know what he wants...give it to him..._

_give it to him and go free'_

**'give it to him and go free...?'**

_'Yes, then when you are free, come back to me. I'll be waiting._

_I'll always be waiting._

_Always waiting.'_

* * *

_-_

* * *

Miroku stepped into the dark hut, his eyes instantly drawn to the tiny figure on the futon that moaned in a fitful, troubled sleep. The aura he felt around her was dark, troubled, sinking into despair. For reasons unknown to him he kept seeing the image of Kagome, he tiny withered form, sinking in a vat of poison.

_'I want you' _

The tiny moan was nearly unheard but in the quiet of the afternoon and the absence of the rings of his staff jingling next to his head he picked up the tiny whimper easily.

Miroku knelt down by the futon at her head and pulled the blankets back smothering a gasp as he dropped them immediately in shock and they fell away from her body.

As he looked at Kagome laying on the futon, he suddenly understood InuYasha's tears.

In fact, he felt quite up to the challenge of meeting them with his own.

InuYasha and Kaede had both tried to prepare him, but there was no preparing for this. The Kagome they had known, the sweet innocent, pretty teenage girl was now horrifically thin, her skeletal frame was plainly visible through her ashen skin. Her body was covered in bruises, most fading, the worst of which were on the insides of her arms also marred with marks that looked like she had been pricked by thorns over and over and over again for months and months. She lay shivering, though the afternoon was warm, her body covered in a great sheen of sweat.

Miroku reached down to brush her hair from her face

"Kagome...kami, what happened to you?"

Kagome's eye's opened slowly, once again not the sweet eyes he had known.

"Mi..Miroku...is that ...that really you?"

"Yes Kagome, it's me." Miroku scooted down to sit on the floor closer to her.

"Did HE leave?"

"You mean InuYasha? He's only outside, he won't leave you..."

"Damn him to fucking hell!"

Miroku jumped, surprised by the language and the anger in her voice.

"Kagome?"

"He's got me locked up like a fucking prisoner. I hate his fucking guts."

"Kagome, you don't mean..." he shook his head shocked at the hate in her voice, particularly directed at InuYasha.

Kagome rolled over on her side and sat up, giggling a little.

"Do you remember how mad he got the first time you groped my ass Miroku?"

Miroku chuckled a little, relieved to be back on secure footing once again.

"Yes, yes. I knew then he loved you, even if neither of you did."

"You liked my ass though didn't you?" Kagome reached for his hand with shaking fingers and held it clutched in both of hers.

"Round and firm and..."

"Ka...ka...gome...that was a long time ago...and..."

Kagome stood up and dropped her pajama bottoms and panties, then put Miroku's hands on her bare ass, her front barely inches from his nose and mouth.

"Do you still like it, would you like to fuck it? I'll let you fuck it if you take me to the well first." Miroku jerked his hands away and started to jump to his feet.

"Kagome! th..that's"

Kagome pulled him down on the futon and straddled him.

"I need to get out of here Miroku" her voice was shaking now as well as her body. "Your gonna help me like it or not okay?"

She began to pull at Miroku's robes until she found what she was looking for.

Kagome began to stroke him roughly.

"Kagome stop!" Miroku tried to push her off of him and she dug her fingernails into the sensitive flesh, drawing blood, and he fell back with a grunt of pain.

"I need to go home Miroku" Kagome was crying now as she continued to jerk him off roughly "I need...to ..take an important test. If you don't help me, I'll tell InuYasha that you made me touch you like this and then he will kill you."

"Kagome! Stop...! Stop this now!" Miroku started to sit up but Kagome dug her nails in again

"Fuck you! I want to go home! I have to go...don't you understand? None of you fucking understand! I need it! I'm gonna die and no one fucking cares! Your all so fucking stupid! Your just stupid! Stupid!"

Miroku was in fear for his life. Kagome wasn't lying, if InuYasha saw this he would kill him, and Kagome was obviously not going to stop him. But not only that, she was still jerking on him hard, her fingernails still dug into his flesh and her hands and his crotch were both covered with blood.

"K...k...'gome...please...stop...your hurting ..."

Kagome fell sideway's on the bed, her hand still gripping him as her body began jerking out of control, wracked by convulsions.

Miroku did the only thing he could.

He screamed.

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Sango sat on the fallen log trying to process the turn of events that had brought them all back together. She still couldn't grasp everything that had happened, it felt like she was on the verge of sensory overload.

Her first desire had been an overwhelming urge to kill the hentai monk when she saw him laying naked, Kagome's hand in an overly familiar position. But then she watched InuYasha. She expected rage certainly, Miroku should have gone flying through at least one wall. Instead InuYasha had carefully picked up Kagome and gently wrapped her naked body in a blanket and held her in his lap, then pried her hand open to free Miroku.

After telling Miroku where the first aide kit was he had sat gently rocking Kagome who was still awake, her tremors nearly as bad as her convulsions had been. When the second round of convulsing started and Kagome began vomiting he just held her over his lap, making sure the vomit cleared her mouth and nose.

"Hey"

Sango looked up to see InuYasha approaching the fallen log where she sat.

"Hello. Is Kagome finally asleep?"

He sat down on the grass cross legged, his back against another tree.

"Yeah. Miroku is sitting with her."

"You're not worried about allowing him to be alone with her after what happened earlier?"

"The first time I saw Kagome, it's been about a week ago now I guess, she was with a man that she bought her drugs from. She was doing... things ...sexual things...with him, so he would give her drugs. When he saw me he started a fight and Kagome tried to move and he hit her, he hit her so hard Sango that her head cracked into a wall, that was as hard as rock. I killed him, to protect her."

Sango watched, fascinated, as tears fell down InuYasha's cheeks unhindered as he spoke.

"She pretended to be happy to see me, then she stabbed me seven times, shot up in front of me, stole the dead guys money and drugs, and told me if I came near her again she would kill me."

"InuYasha..."

"You asked me if I was worried about Miroku being alone with Kagome? Kami yes, yes I am. I am afraid of what she might do next."

Sango got to her feet to go back to the hut.

"Please don't blame Miroku for what happened today Sango" InuYasha sighed deeply "Blame Kagome, blame the Black Dragon, but don't blame an innocent man."

Sango nodded, a small smile playing about her lips "Who would have ever thought we would one day mix Miroku and Innocent man in the same sentence?"

"Keh" He snorted, his lips twisted into a small grin "Sure as fuck not me."

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"InuYasha! Please! I'll let you do anything you want...just get me a little" Kagome lay in InuYasha's lap, her body soaked in sweat as she clung to him, begging for the Black Dragon.

"No Kagome, you don't want that."

"Yes I do! Hey, InuYasha, take me to the well" her arms shook horribly as she wrapped them around his neck and pulled his head down so her lips brushed his ear.

"Take me to the well InuYasha...I'll give you head before I leave if you do."

InuYasha wrapped her tighter in his arms and pulled her closer to his chest.

"All I want is for you to be free Kagome...that's all I want..."

"You hate me!" She raged "You hate me because I'm not your precious fucking cunt Kikyo. That's the only reason your making me suffer! Hmnnnn" she clenched her teeth and hit him with her tiny fists

"That's not true" He kissed her sweat dampened hair and nodded to Sango to bring the basin and sponge Kagome off again.

"InuYasha" Kagome said sweetly "You want me to feel better don't you? So, come on...just let me go get a little...just enough to make me feel better...then I'll come back and we can do this all over again tomorrow. But I'll be stronger tomorrow...I promise. I just need enough to get me through this fucking withdrawal."

"You don't need that."

"Yes I do! I do too you dumb asshole! This is kidnapping now let me the fuck go!" Kagome sank her teeth deep into the side of his arm.

"You think that hurts? You gotta do better than that Kagome"

"This hurts! This fucking hurts! This fucking hurts you dumb ass mother FUCKER! But you don't even care!"

Miroku came in just then with an armload of fire wood, he shook his head and looked over at Sango. Sango nodded sadly and sighed.

Though they didn't know it, their thoughts were once again like they had so often been in the past, perfectly in tune with one another.

Both wondered if Kagome would still be able to say that InuYasha didn't care if she could but only see the tears that poured down his face as he held her frail body close to him while he wept into her hair, not bothering to notice the coming dawn.

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Black Dragon

Scroll VII Preview

Kagome

continues to battle the Black Dragon...

and one small mistake could lead to

tragic consequences.

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	7. Scroll VII

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-Warning: This work of fiction is very graphic and dark, containing strong language, violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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_Kagome and InuYasha sat with Miroku and Sango in a lush green meadow, the grass high enough to cocoon them and hide them from anyone who should pass._

"_I could stay here all day" Miroku remarked, stretching out on the grass on his back next to Sango who lay on her stomach._

"_I agree" Sango nodded, her head on her arms "It's too beautiful a day to look for shards."_

"_I'm up for a nap" InuYasha remarked, his head already resting comfortably cushioned in Kagome's lap while he played with the red ends of the red scarf of her school uniform._

_Kagome smiled down at him and brushed her fingernails through the short silver hair at the back of his ears then looked up at the sky, noticing a darkening in the approaching clouds. She pushed InuYasha gently out of her lap to stand._

"_I hate to be the bearer of bad news" She stretched on her toes, her arms up high in the air. "But I think we are going to need to find shelter, more storms look to be coming in."_

_Strong arms embraced her from behind and she felt teeth on her neck._

"_Perhaps I should take you somewhere where I can fuck you."_

_Kagome gasped as a breast was grabbed roughly, claws tearing into the material and through her bra while a knee forced her legs apart and the other hand reached under her skirt. _

"_INUYASHA! What the ..." she pushed her way free from the arms that held her._

"_Guess again wench"_

_Naraku clad only his hakema grinned at her cruelly._

"_Naraku! How ... How dare you touch me!"_

"_Really Kagome, you would think you didn't savor my touch"_

"_I would never let you touch me!"_

"_Not even for this?" Naraku lifted his hand, he held full a syringe "Come, I know you want it."_

_Kagome stood frozen to the spot, wanting to run and get away, but wanting the rush more. Naraku approached and pushed her down onto her knees and she took him into her mouth while he shot the drug into her arm._

_She looked up at Naraku as his appearance changed to that of a black dragon. After he climaxed he forced her to the ground on her back._

"_I told you that you were mine whore."_

_He lifted a huge black ceremonial dagger and began to plunge it down to her heart._

"_DIE WHORE"_

"_NO!!!!!!!!!!! "_

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-Black Dragon 

-Scroll VII

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"NO!!!!!!!!!!!" 

Kagome's screams shattered the pre-dawn silence and so began another day. InuYasha ran into the hut from outside to find Kagome hunched down in a corner of the hut, her blankets over her shaking body, the pillow torn into shreds.

"Kagome, it's okay" He pulled the blanket off her head, trying to get her eyes to fix onto his. "it was just another nightmare."

"NO! You can't trick me Naraku! I know you, I know what your trying to do you fucker!"

InuYasha heard shuffling behind him, a moment later Miroku and Sango knelt beside Kagome as well.

"Kagome, Naraku isn't here...he's dead. Remember? We killed him." Miroku spoke low and soothingly, trying to get Kagome to stop shrieking.

"No you Bastard! I ...you can't trick me! You can't trick me!"

"Kagome...please, listen to me." Sango took Kagome's face in her hands and gently turned Kagome's head towards her, locking their eyes. "It was a nightmare Kagome, Naraku's dead, Remember? We killed him...all of us together."

"He..., he's dead..." clarity returned to her eyes, only to be replaced by something even worse "Sango?" Kagome stared into her eyes, wanting to believe her but scared to death to trust. "Hey, your my friend right?"

"Of course I am"

"Then, if your really, take me to the well then." Kagome's eyes were pleading, desperate, her body shaking with withdrawal "If I don't get to the well I'm gonna fucking die Sango, so please, you'll take me to the well right? You'll take me now?"

"InuYasha" Miroku whispered, nodding with his head that they should leave Kagome to Sango. InuYasha nodded weakly and left the hut, walking to the tree line a shot ways away. He stood, his hands braced on a tree with his face resting on the inside of his elbows.

"InuYasha...are you..." Miroku was cut off when InuYasha whirled on him

"NO! I AM NOT FUCKING OKAY! DO I LOOK FUCKING OKAY TO YOU MIROKU? SON OF A FUCKING BITCH! HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS CAN I TAKE?"

He swung out in a violent rage, taking down three trees in a single swipe and slashing them into kindling. He continued to vent his frustration on the tree line, on and on until a healthy pile of wood lay littered around where he had finally collapsed on the ground.

Miroku sat down on the ground next to him, offering silent comfort with his presence.

"I'm sorry Miroku...I don't..."

Miroku wove his apology away.

"Don't InuYasha... if anyone should apologize, it's me. The last time we saw one another I was far from helpful."

"You were an ass." Inuyasha said bluntly, a small grin forming on his face. Miroku couldn't help grinning back.

"That too. I guess we all made a mess of things."

"I never should have forced her to go home Miroku."

"You thought you were doing what was best for her."

"And look what I did to her. She's all messed up and it's my fault."

Miroku looked at InuYasha with sympathy. "You couldn't have foreseen her brothers death." He settled back against the log again "And this drug, this heroin, none of us would have ever imagined that Kagome of all people..."

"She begged me to come with her, I could have, I could have become human for her. I was going to do it for Kikyo, why not..."

"Kagome wouldn't have allowed it. You know that."

"I guess. I just..."

"LET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

"Shit."

"InuYasha, let Sango and me handle this. Take a few minutes to yourself."

"LET ME OUT OF HERE OR I"LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!"

InuYasha stood without a second of hesitation while Kagome's cries shrieked out into the silence, her cries carrying for miles.

"I can't. She needs me."

He ran back to the hut, leaving Miroku standing in the middle of the destroyed patch of forest.

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By the time InuYasha and Miroku had made it back into the hut they had to pull Kagome off of Sango, she had her pushed hard into the wall, her fists full of Sango's hair trying to force her to remove the sutras from the door. 

InuYasha dealt with Kagome, holding her in his lap while she alternated crying and begging for heroin to screaming and threating to kill every one of them. In between the vomiting and convulsions had begun again and Kagome cried out from the pain in her back, arms and legs while sweat ran down her shaking body. Finally she calmed and seemed to doze fitfully in InuYasha's arms.

Miroku took the first aid kit in one hand and Sango in the other and led her out the back door of the hut so he could take care of the scratches to her face along with her split lip. She followed him grudgingly, nervous to be alone with him, it was the first time.

She sat quietly while he gently dabbed antiseptic on her skin to clean the scratches. Neither spoke until he finished, and then it was Sango who spoke first.

"I'm sorry Miroku." she looked up at him sadly, her lashes sparkling with tears.

"For what?" He didn't look at her, instead he busied himself with organizing the band aids so they were all facing the same direction.

"Yesterday, when I first came...I thought..."

"That I tried to take advantage of Kagome." Miroku knew it was his own fault that assumptions like that were made about him, he had earned his reputation after all, but that didn't stop a pang of sadness from hitting him hard.

Sango didn't trust him, she would never trust him. Knowing it was his own fault only made it hurt more.

"Yes, but Miroku I was wrong."

"You had every reason to think that Sango. I realize I didn't act very honorably towards you but I would never take advantage of Kagome, particularly not when she is sick like this."

"I know that. I've always known, I think I just forgot for a little while. I'm so sorry."

"I gave you reason to believe what you did yesterday. For the past six months I've been blaming everything on InuYasha. But being back here, I can't help but see the truth, It's my own fault, I messed everything up. I'm so sorry Sango."

"You didn't do it alone Miroku. I could have told you how I felt before things got out of hand."

"I never realized how much Kagome held us all together until she wasn't there anymore."

"How do I help her? I want to...but I... I don't know how to help her."

Miroku looked up at Sango, her voice and face were so full of pain he couldn't stand it anymore and he put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. Sango dissolved into gentle sobs and buried her face in his chest.

"Well find a way Sango." Miroku kissed her forehead "She'll be okay."

His words of encouragement were shattered by Kagome waking up screaming from another nightmare. Her screams were followed shortly by the sounds of yelling from inside.

The last person any of them wanted or needed to see had arrived and just busted his way into the hut.

"HELP ME KOGA!" Kagome screamed from where she was being restrained behind InuYasha.

"Koga get the fuck out of here, now!" InuYasha barred his fangs at the wolf, leaving nothing to Koga's imagination about what InuYasha would do if he interfered. "You have no idea what is going on here."

"No Koga! Help me!" Kagome screamed before InuYasha carefully covered her mouth with his hand.

"This isn't what it looks like Koga, you need to leave" Miroku tried to reason with Koga

"Looks to me like dog-shit is keeping my woman here against her will, thats AFTER he's kept her hidden from me for six months!" Koga looked ready to rip someone apart and at the moment he didn't appear too chosey about who it would be either.

"I'm warning you mutt, get your hands off her."

"Koga" Sango tried to reason with him "You need to leave"

"Fat-fucking chance"

"Miroku, Sango...come sit with Kagome" InuYasha handed Kagome to them to drag Koga outside himself.

He was expecting Koga to fight fair, not to immediately attack, sending him flying through the wall and outside the hut.

Before he came to a stop Koga had shoved Sango out of the way onto Miroku and hoisted Kagome over his shoulder, on a wave of dust he burst out the same hole in the hut that he had sent InuYasha flying from and was a trail of dust before they realized what had hit them.

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Kagome breathed dizzily from underneath Koga's arm, now all she had to do was get to the well. But when she looked down all she saw was rock. They were beginning the climb up the mountain side. 

"Koga"Kagome gasped her voice and body shaking horribly "Take me to the well, in the clearing."

"Fuck that, I'm taking you to my den where I can protect you from dog-shit."

Kagome panicked "No! I want to go to the well, now!"

"You'll be safer at the den wench"

"I said take me to the fucking well!"

"And I said NO!"

Kagome began to panic, what would she do now? Instead of getting to the well she was getting further and further away.

Kagome's knee brushed against something cold and hard and she realized immediately what it was, she reached down and unsheathed Koga's nearly forgotten sword and held it to his neck.

"And I said YES!"

Koga slowed and then came to a stop.

"Ka...Kagome...what the hell..."

"Take me to the well Koga, please." She whined

"Why do you want to go to the well so bad?"

"What the hell do you care? Just take me!"

Koga noticed then how badly her hand was shaking and the desperation in her voice and realization swept over him that he had just done something seriously wrong. He realized that InuYasha had been telling the truth. Kagome was not right.

"What's so important about the well Kagome?"

With a groan Kagome slid off his back and onto her feet clutching the sword in both hands. Her body shook so bad she was barely able to keep it aloft. For the first time Koga really looked at her. This was not the Kagome that he knew. This was someone who maybe looked and smelled a little like her but couldn't possibly be the woman he had loved for all this time.

Dark hateful eyes glared at him from beneath dirty black bangs, ashen skin stretched over a too thin skeletal frame. She looked ready to kill him, and might have if she had been able to have any control over the sword.

"Kagome...give me the sword and I'll take you back."

"NO! I'm not going back there!" She had worked her way around so her back was to the edge of a small cliff, on the other side was a high drop off, the ground a long way down below.

"Okay, okay, just come away from the edge."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ME TO THE FUCKING WELL YOU ASSHOLE?!"

Kagome held the sword in shaking hands pointed towards Koga, that was the least of his concerns though, she was stepping closer to the edge.

"I'm sorry. Kagome...I'll take you now."

"No you won't! You'll just take me back to that fucking hut!"

"KOGA YOU BASTARD!" InuYasha landed just behind Koga, ready to kill the wolf when his eyes fell on Kagome. Now he ignored the wolf totally and turned his attention on the girl.

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"Kagome...what are you doing?" InuYasha's voice seemed to come from the top of a deep tunnel, it echoed around her. 

"He wouldn't take me to the well!" She screamed tears began to run down her face, mingling with the heavy sheen of sweat on her face.

_**Yes, you want to get to the well don't you? You want me.**_

_Yes._

"Kagome, give me the sword okay?" InuYasha reach his hand out for the sword.

_**He wants to keep us apart Kagome. He likes seeing you like this...in pain and suffering. **_

Kagome lifted it and Shook her head. "No InuYasha! Get back!"

"Okay...okay..." InuYasha stepped back slightly

_**Yes...you are still mine aren't you Kagome? You want me, you need me. You can't stand to live without me can you?"**_

_No it hurts too much_

_**You can end it now. Just a few steps and the pain will stop forever.**_

"Kagome please give me the sword"

_**Jump Kagome.**_

_Jump?_

_**Yes Jump. It's your only way free... I told you before, I will never let you go. You are mine. My good little whore. If I told you to, you would kill all your friends for me. You would even fuck Naraku. **_

_No! _

"Kagome...Please come away from the edge"

_**Jump whore...die for me**_

"Kagome...please..."

_**It's your only way to freedom, the only way I will ever let you go!**_

"Kagome!"

_**JUMP! **_

"Kagome! Please...don't let go! I NEED YOU!"

_**HE'S LYING YOU BITCH JUMP!**_

"So many people love you Kagome, we want you to get better!"

_**LIES! THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO GET AWAY FROM THE PAIN OF KILLING YOUR OWN BROTHER!**_

" I NEVER SHOULD HAVE SENT YOU AWAY BEFORE...I'M SORRY...I'M SO SORRY...JUST PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!"

_**JUMP BITCH! DIE !**_

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InuYasha watched Kagome's face from where he stood just in front of her. She seemed to be fighting an internal war. He struggled to find the right words to bring her back from that edge.

"I need you with me Kagome...haven't you realized that yet?"

Kagome's eyes opened wide as memory flooded over her.

Another time many years ago when she had thought she had lost everything.

She'd had to fight her way back that time through the roots of the tree of ages.

Now she would fight the lies of the Black Dragon.

She dropped the sword and fell into InuYasha's arms. He breathed a sigh of relief and kissed her hair over and over again, running his fingers through the sweat dampened strands as he sank to sit on the ground.

"InuYasha" She whimpered against his chest "You promise? You really won't leave me ever again?"

"If promise you wont leave me "

"I'm scared"

"I'm here, I'll always be here. Okay?"

Kagome nodded.

Koga opened his mouth to say something but InuYasha shook his head. Koga nodded and picked up his sword. When he turned to head back down the mountainside Inuyasha knew that he wasn't rid of the wolf just yet. A long while later Kagome's shaking seemed to mix with shivering and he took off his hoari and wrapped it around her.

"InuYasha...I'm so cold. Can we go back to the hut please?"

"Yeah, let's go back." For the first time she had asked for the hut and not the well. It was a small thing, but to him, it was momentous.

He lifted her in his arms then bent his head and kissed her forehead as they began their way down the mountainside.

"The others will be worried."

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Scroll VIII Preview

Kagome has overcome a lot already, but that doesn't mean she's home free.

As the withdrawal symptoms begin to lessen, Kagome must face up to the things she has done.

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	8. Scroll VIII

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Warning: This work of fiction is very graphic and dark, containing strong language, violence, unpleasant sexual situations, and drug use. Kagome will be very out of character, because that is what drug addiction does to a person, it changes them into something horrible and ugly.

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-Note- This scroll features a multiple flashback sequence from Kagome's point of view. The word _Flash _appears to indicate a memory change

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_Kagome lay naked on the dirty mattress covered by only a thin sheet, her arms chained above her head to the wall, her eyes fixed and staring at a single hole among many in the ceiling tile of the abandoned office building. How long she had lay there she didn't know, two days, three days, it didn't matter anyway. Everyday was the same, the same people the same routine since she ran away from InuYasha and the others and finally reached the well that brought her back here to where the Black Dragon had been waiting anxiously for her. He of course insisted that his desires be sated before her need and before she realized what he was up to she was trapped, chained by the arms and ankles._

_A dark faceless figure loomed over her, her fix being waved inches over her naked arms._

"_I knew you would be back" he grunted rolling his naked body on top of hers_

"_you can't live without me can you bitch?"_

_Kagome cried softly, her tears rolling down her cheek to drip into her hair._

_This angered the Dragon, tears meant regret and none of his bitches were allowed feelings, particularly not this one, not after she had tried to escape him. He curled his fingers into a fist and hit her hard across the cheek, blood flew from her mouth and nose and Kagome struggled to stop her tears._

"_Stop it I said!" The dragon raged _

"_I ...c-c-can't" she whimpered_

"_What the fuck is your problem slut? Eh,. Is it him? The one you ran to? Did you think he could save you?"_

_The dragon laughed cruelly and partially transformed, his head now fierce and ugly. He reached between her legs and thrust four fingers inside._

"_Is he the one you've been saving this for?!" The dragons voice became wild and dark and Kagome tried to stop her tears desperately, to please him before...before..."_

_Something like red hot iron was thrust inside of her and she screamed as her virginity was stolen by the Black Dragon. He slapped her again and again until she was quiet, then feeling indulgent he shot her fix into her arm, the rush took over and she relaxed around him while his thrusts became harder and more violent._

"_I knew...you would do anything for me!" The Dragon laughed as he climaxed, pressing hard against her. "There's no way another would accept you now, even HE wouldn't touch you now that I fucked you. You're mine to do with as I please until I decide the time has come for you to die." He rose, pulling the sheet with him so Kagome couldn't cover herself_

"_It will please me greatly to watch you getting fucked now"_

_Kagome slit her eyes open to see three men getting onto the mattress with her. She felt vomit rise in her throat as each claimed a part of her at the same time, then she looked up and saw InuYasha standing over the mattress._

_He threw the men off of her and freed her from the chains but when she tried to fall into his arms he shoved her away from him roughly._

"_Don't touch me with your filthy body." he turned to leave and Kagome reached out to him_

"_InuYasha..."_

_He stepped forward, screaming into her face_

"_Your just a fucking whore!"_

_She turned away and found herself face to face with Kikyo and realized she now stood naked in Kaede's village._

"_From the great Priestess Kikyo to a dirty slut...how you have shamed the soul I've passed on to you."_

_She turned again to find Sango and Miroku_

"_Sango! Sango!"_

"_Get away whore! Do you think I would allow your filth to taint her aura?"_

"_No! No! Your...your my ...I thought you were my friends!...I thought..."_

_Kaede lashed out and hit her with a heavy pole._

"_Be gone from our village prostitute!"_

_Villagers both strangers and friends began to pick up rocks and throw them at her while Kaede and Miroku hit her across the back with the pole and staff. InuYasha kept his back turned to her._

"_InuYasha...InuYasha!" Kagome screamed, begging for him to help her as her face and arms were bloodied by the rocks. "Please! Help me!_

"_Fuck you bitch."_

"_No!" Kagome screamed, he was just going to let her die, he really didn't care anymore...she was just a slut, like they all said...she should...she should just give up then, let the rocks take her. _

_A hand reached in suddenly through the throng of angry screaming villagers._

"_Kagome...Kagome...it's okay...I'm here..."_

Kagome felt gentle arms wrap around her shoulders and she buried her nose and wept against a warm neck. Like always when she had these terrible nightmares, she was comforted immediately by the smell that surrounded her. He smelled like forest and sunshine, like every happy memory she had.

He smelled like InuYasha.

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-Black Dragon 

-Scroll VIII

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- 

-

Sango tried not to stare while Kagome lowered herself into the hot spring. It had been a little over two weeks since she had come and Kagome had finally gotten past the worst of the withdrawal five days before. Gone was the violent, desperate, scary Kagome that had greeted Sango the first day but the Kagome who had taken her place was no less frightening.

She was still horribly thin, little more than skin over bone. The deep bruises that she called "track marks" were beginning to fade but were still purple, now blended with a sickly yellow. She was quiet and sullen and rarely smiled. She never spoke to InuYasha unless asked a question, Sango didn't think she had said a single word to Miroku at all yet and only one or two to her.

Since her attempt to jump off the cliff she had held to her resolve that she was going to "kick the shit" as she called it. She'd had a lot of times where the resolve had been pulled paper thin, where to look at her was obvious that she was considering a mad dash to the well. Another well placed sutra and that problem was taken care of.

Once she had began to get past the worst stages of physical withdrawal InuYasha didn't want to confine her to the hut or make her feel like a prisoner. They took runs together often, Kagome on InuYasha's back, yet neither said a word. Since when had Kagome and InuYasha ever needed words? Since they had known one another they had been able to have entire conversations with just a look. Sango missed the sweet overly happy girl she had known before, but she had to accept that the girl she had once known was probably gone forever.

Sango caught herself staring again at Kagome's pencil thin arms and looked away quickly.

"It's okay" Kagome said quietly, not looking up

"What?"

"You don't have to keep looking away" Kagome sniffed

"Kagome..."

"I'm ugly" she wiped at a tear

"No...your not"

"I know what I look like you know, I can see my reflection in the water just as well as you can."

Kagome shook her head, her face in her hands.

"I did this to myself...all on my own."

Sango put her hand on Kagome's "Your still beautiful to us."

Kagome pulled away

Kagome 's voice was horrified "You don't know...

"Kagome?"

"You don't know..."

_**Flash**_

"_Kagome..." InuYasha called out to her, his arms opened to her, his heart and eyes pleading with her to come to him, to come with him._

_No, she had to be seeing things...InuYasha was kneeling beside her. What the hell was he doing there?_

"_Kagome...I came to bring you home."_

"_InuYasha!" Kagome threw herself into his arms_

_InuYasha sighed and relaxed against her, pulling her to her feet._

"_Your okay now Kagome, I'm going to get you better."_

"_Oh InuYasha. Thank Kami you came...I was so scared...he was hurting me. I thought he was going to kill me...They've made me do things...I didn't want to."_

_Kagome carefully reached into her back pocket._

"_I know. It's okay Kagome. I'm here now. I'll take care of..."_

_InuYasha gasped as cold sharp steel was thrust into his ribs, pulled out, then thrust in again, ... He staggered backwards against the other side of the alley and slumped against the wall and slid to the ground._

"_Kagome..."_

_, she pulled out a needle like the one her mother had shown him then jerked her belt out of the loops, wrapped it around her arm and shot the contents of the needle into her arm._

_She turned and glared at InuYasha._

"_... Come near me again motherfucker and I'll gut you."_

**_Flash_**

"_Come on Kagome...dang sis, your so slow!"_

"_Oh shush up...hey, Sota, be careful...your lines are tangled"_

"_I'll get it...oh...almost ...got...it..."_

"_Sota don't... move the line!"_

"_Kagome, I almost got...oh..oh kami...Kagome Help...I'm slip...ahhhhhhhhhhhh"_

"_SOTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_

"_Sota!!! SOTA!!!! NO!!!!"_

"_NO!!"_

_Flash_

_Kagome sat inside the bathroom stall in the funeral home listening to the two women talking about her. ._

"_It's so sad, poor child this young dying so tragically"_

"_Specially when it could have been avoided."_

"_Avoided? However do you mean?"_

"_Well, the daughter of course. You know shes always been a coddled indulged thing, a real piece of work."_

"_Oh sure, everyone knows about her, her mother even let her skip an entire year of school to go running the streets with that gang boy."_

"_Is that what it was? I heard she was pregnant by Hojo."_

"_Well, never mind that now...thing is, Making her mother sign him up for those dangerous classes,. Kagome Higurashi as good as killed her own brother."_

**_Flash_**

"_Hey Kag, check this out"_

"_Are you nuts? I hate getting shot's, you think I'm gonna do it for fun?"_

"_Come on, you'll love it, your just scared."_

"_I said no."_

"_I said yes, c'mon, don't be a downer."_

"_I'm leaving."_

"_Okay, tried to do it the easy way...Hey Rai, Micho...help me here."_

"_What do you think your doing?!"_

"_Helping you change your mind"_

_Hands pinned her to the bed and she felt the needle slide into her arm followed by a rush of pure nothingness. Freedom of pain, hurt. There was no InuYasha, no Sota, no time or space...just the rush. _

**_Flash_**

"_Shit, no matter to me, holes a hole." the man dropped his pants to his knees and knelt down on the dirty mattress. "What you standing there for wareme chan? Get your ass down here."_

_Kaori took off her own clothes and lay down next to Kagome. She reached for Kagome's breasts and began to fondle the nipples._

"_Yeah" He nodded "Keep the fuckers nice and hard like that. Lick on em." The girl repositioned herself to lick and suck on Kagome's breasts. He lined himself up with her anal entrance and slammed himself into her._

**_Flash_**

_He grabbed her hair and jerked her face back to his penis. Kagome opened her mouth and slid him back into her mouth, refusing to let her mind wander._

**_End Flash_**

"Kagome!" Sango was shaking her gently

"Don't say I'm beautiful" Kagome whispered, her mind swirling with bad memories and bits and flashes of her dream from the night before.

"Don't please...you ...you don't know" Kagome hung her head

"I don't know what?"

"How ugly I am..." a tear fell down Kagome's face and splashed into the water "inside"

"Kagome...you're not ugly, inside or out. Your the most beautiful person I've ever known."

"I'm not that girl anymore ...You don't know me Sango...you don't want to know me, to know...the things I've said, the thing's I've done. It would make you sick and disgusted." Kagome sobbed softly

"I don't think that's true Kagome. You can tell me if you want to, or you don't have to tell me a thing. I'll love you either way, Inuyasha, Miroku and I will love you either way. Remember when I betrayed InuYasha?"

"You never..."

"Oh yes I did...I stole Tessiaga, then led you all into a trap set by up by Naraku."

"But that was different...you did it to save Kohaku."

"I think when people are part of a family like we are, the reasons we have for forgiving doesn't matter, the important thing is that we forgive. You know InuYasha, if he could forgive me for all the times we were led into danger because of Kohaku and if he can forgive me for stealing Tessiaga, well, I don't think there is an offense in the world that can't be forgiven."

"But..."

"But nothing, you have a new life starting now, so I say fuck the past."

Kagome's head jerked up in shock. "Sango!"

"What?"

"You said the F word!"

Sango giggled even as her cheeks grew pink. "You say it now."

"Well yeah, but...I'm...I'm..."

"Yes?"

Kagome smiled a little and shook her head.

"Never mind."

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- 

-Scroll VIIII Preview

-Sango helps Kagome rebuild some of her self-esteem

-by secretly

-helping InuYasha plot a special night for Kagome

-also

-Kagome Prepares To Visit Her Mother

For The First Time

-It's some Fluff and Puffs

-in the next scroll as we get close

-to the final scroll.

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	9. The Final Scroll

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-Contains minor sexual content

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_Deki was worried. Kagome had been gone for two full days now. She had never been gone so much as an hour before without calling to let her family know where she was going to be, and now she had been gone two full days and nights! Sota was telling strange stories of the well opening up with monsters taking Kagome! It was silliness of course, but ... all the same...hadn't she heard stories, odd stories of strange happenings at Higurashi Shrine before she had met Inkei? Hadn't she seen odd things when she had first moved here after her husbands death? And now her daughter was missing...strange stories..._

* * *

_-_

* * *

-Black Dragon 

-The Final Scroll

* * *

-

* * *

Kagome tried to smile while she patiently followed behind Sango on the way to the hot spring for one of their frequent bathes. She hadn't realized just how much they had bathed in the past and it was starting to bother her. Every bath was another time she had to come out of hiding. Another time she had to remove the heavy layer of clothing she had hidden herself under and see the disgusting thing that she had let herself become. Worse than that, she had to let Sango see the drugged out whore who taken over the once happy miko. 

Kagome didn't wear her shame well.

"Come on Kagome, your lagging behind." Sango smiled and waited for Kagome to catch up then took her hand to speed her along.

"Sorry I don't move fast enough for you anymore."

"Oh don't be so grouchy, your starting to sound just like InuYasha." Sango attempted to make Kagome smile, but only earned a sharp retort.

"Then don't be so fucking bossy" she jerked her hand away and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sango bit her lip, refusing to let Kagome's words sting. She had to remember where they were coming from.

While the physical signs of withdrawal had left Kagome weeks ago, the emotional signs were more apparent than ever, having always been somewhat edgy, Kagome was particularly well practiced at moodiness. Kagome's favorite target was and would always be InuYasha. The difference was that he no longer allowed her to bait him. He refused to get angry with her, refused to respond with cruel words, or give her any rational reason to lash out at him.

Not that she needed logical reasons to lash out at him when she had so many irrational ones. Hot food was too hot. Cold food was too cold. InuYasha was suppose to make the sun come out, control the rain, and make the crickets stop chirping so loud because they were keeping her awake.

Perhaps out of embarrassment of her attack on Miroku upon his arrival, Kagome refuse to speak or even look at him, even when spoken to. She might favor him with a nod, but that was about the best he got. Sango got little more. Besides the few words she had spoken during their first bath weeks before, Kagome had refused to open up to Sango about anything that had happened in her own time.

There had only been one time, one brief shining hour when Kagome had seemed like her old self, the first time Shippo had been allowed to visit. For a that short beautiful time her smile had returned, and the sparkle had danced in her eyes again. InuYasha found himself breathless, his knees gone weak. It was like looking at Kagome in the old days again.

Then Shippo had asked Kagome if she was done being sick yet so he could come back and stay with them again and the sparkle died as fast as her smile faded.

Shippo's visits after that were marked with Kagome's fear of his asking the question again and the smile never returned with Shippo. Now InuYasha thought he would try another way, with Sango's help.

"What is all this stuff?" Kagome indicated the familiar bag that sat by the hot spring.

"InuYasha went to your mother this morning, and had her put together some of your favorite bath things and make-up and some clothes too."

"He did?" Kagome nearly smiled "For me?

"I don't think he would do it for anyone else. He certainly wouldn't do it for Miroku or Sesshomaru."

Kagome glanced up at Sango and now she did smile, even a small laugh. "Very funny. If he did go to Sesshomaru's mother asking for make up and clothes for her son she would likely kill him."

Sango smiled. "It's a good thing it was your mother then I guess."

"Yeah." Kagome's smiled was already gone as she began removing her clothes to step into the bath "Maybe"

* * *

-

* * *

InuYasha had waited in the bushes just long enough to watch Kagome's reaction to his surprise, he hadn't thought Kagome would pull off her sweatshirt so fast. Though the bruises were gone now and the track marks were fading, she was still so painfully thin it scared him. Miroku found him deep in thought on the path back to the hut. 

"InuYasha?"

"What?"

"What's on your mind?"

"Nothing" He tried to wave it off and pass Miroku but the houshi knew the hanyou too well for that.

"InuYasha, I care about Kagome to, you brought me here to help, how can I help if you wont tell me what's going on?"

"She's still so thin"

"Kagome you mean."

"No, Kaede." InuYasha rolled his eyes

Miroku smirked a little "Okay, I deserved that."

"I don't know what to do. How to make her okay again."

"I think this is the kind of thing that can only be healed with time InuYasha, time and having people who love you around you. Kagome has both."

"Kami Miroku...I wish I could go back and undo that one damn mistake, everyone would be happier. You and Sango would probably be married by now and me and Kagome would..."

"InuYasha, don't, don't do that. You only torture yourself, you can't go back in time and change the decisions you already made."

InuYasha laughed bitterly "You're right, Kagome went back in time, and look at the good its done her."

"Come on, we have work to do back at the hut."

InuYasha nodded and followed Miroku back through the forest path.

* * *

-

* * *

Kagome found that a steaming hot springs bath and a little pampering did wonders for even her mood. Sango, because she was trained as a yokai slayer and thus prone to injury was also trained in the art of applying pressure to relieve body aches, one day to be called acupressure, and in massage. By the time she was done with Kagome her body tingled wonderfully. But that wasn't the end. 

She brushed Kagome's hair until it was nearly dry and then helped her arrange it in a fussy up-do and fix it in place with ornate jeweled combs. After applying a dusting a make-up she helped Kagome into a brand new pink kimono, with cherry blossoms and soft slightly darker pink circles. When Sango was finished with her she looked and smelled heavenly, thanks to the splash of perfume she added as a last touch.

When they left the hot spring Kagome had a definite feeling something was up. She was proven right moments later when Sango stopped a few yards away from the hut and informed Kagome that she and Miroku were spending the evening with Kaede and Shippo and would return in the morning.

She stepped inside the hut, and thought for a moment that they had intended to let her have a night alone to herself as she seemed to be the only one there.

She looked around the immaculately cleaned hut however and noticed the small table nicely set for two.

InuYasha chose that moment to make his entrance, nearly knocking Kagome on her ass in shock, her tongue hanging out and drooling.

It was true that InuYasha always looked good, damned hot as a matter of fact, but this night he was beyond words. Gone was his usual red fire rat ensemble and in its place was a black kimono. He had pulled his hair back and tied it with a leather thong at the neck to hang in a loose pony tail down his back, leaving the long locks that usually hung over his shoulders free as usual. And he smelled really, really, good.

"See something you like wench?" InuYasha stood in front of her with a cocky grin, hiding his own favor for her appearance. She looked the best he had seen her in months, damned beautiful in fact.

"Shut up dog boy." Kagome skirted around him with a tiny smile and walked to the table. "So, what is all this?"

"All what?" InuYasha smirked, as if this was an everyday occurrence

"This... The clothes and the table and...and...I'm assuming there's food..."

"Sit down" InuYasha's smile was so sexy that Kagome felt all will to argue leave her body. She sat obediently while InuYasha carried a heavy kettle from the fire and poured out two bowls of Kaede's best stew.

They ate quietly and InuYasha smiled when he saw that Kagome had finished all of hers. Then he took her hand and led her outside, holding her hand he walked to one of the tree's he had cut down and sat down on it with her, his arm around her, to watch the sun set. When it was over they sat in the dark forest, Kagome trying to understand what it all meant.

"InuYasha."

"Hmm?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"This..."

"My arm? If you want me to..."

Kagome jumped up to face him

" No damn it! Listen to me! This! This whole thing! The kimonos and the dinner and the hair and...and...this, All this!"

"Since when does there have to be a reason for doing something nice for someone?"

"You don't just DO things. Specially not things like this."

"Fine! I wanted you to have a nice night! There, you happy?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? Fuck Kagome, I just did."

"I've known you for a long time InuYasha, I know you like the back of my hand. YOU don't just do thing's, you don't just want to do something. Because of what Naraku did to you and Kikyo, you think everything through carefully, you analyze every little move with a fine tooth comb to make sure its the right thing. So if your doing this you must have a damn good reason for it."

"Kagome, will you please just drop it."

"Why?"

"Just drop it."

"What are you ashamed of?"

"I'm not ashamed, I just don't think your ready to talk about it yet." InuYasha began to plead with her. "Now, please, PLEASE Kagome can we PLEASE just drop this?"

"Whats so important that I need to be ready to talk about it?"

"Because! Because... damn it Kagome! Because I already made one huge fucking mistake when I made you go home and sealed the well, look at all that happened because of it? Everything, Sota, you, Miroku and Sango...it's all my fault! Mine!"

"InuYasha..."

"I don't want to make anymore mistakes with you because the next time I fuck up I might lose you forever and I can't lose you again..Kagome! And I ...I can't let that happen...I can't...because I love you too fucking much to live the rest of my life without you!"

Kagome looked like she had been punched in the stomach and slapped at the same time. Her voice was tiny, barely a whisper against the night sounds of the forest.

"You can't...I don't want you to...I won't let you." she turned and ran back to the hut.

InuYasha watched her go, pain and frustration building in his gut. He followed after her, took her arm and turned her to face him.

"What the fuck is that suppose to mean? You can't stop me from loving you wench."

Tears tumbled down Kagome's face, pooling around her chin.

"You don't want me InuYasha...you ...you...deserve better than me...more than what I am..you should be with someone like Kikyo...not some...some...doped out ...w...whore..."

InuYasha closed his eyes and grit his teeth. "Don't call yourself that!"

"It's true! You saw! I know you saw the things I was doing! Sucking off Gineo for...for...and I tried to kill you InuYasha...you should have killed me too..."

"I don't care about any of that! You stood by me when I was transforming and turned on humanity didn't you? Did you say you couldn't love me because of that?"

"That was different...you had no control"

"Neither did you, it was the drugs Kagome, not your heart."

InuYasha stepped towards her and tried to pull her into his arms, for a moment it seemed she was going to allow it, then at the last moment she shoved him away, jerking the ties of her obi and pulling the front of her Kimono open letting it fall to the floor, baring her thin wasted body to his eyes.

"LOOK AT ME !! THIS TRIED TO FUCKING KILL YOU INUYASHA!!! LOOK AT ME!!" She screamed "I'M A MONSTER INUYASHA!!!! ...FUCKING UGLY ALL THE WAY THROUGH, INSIDE AND OUTSIDE!! There is nothing left of the person you knew!!!"

InuYasha had tears in his eyes when he stepped forward and wrapped her in the warmth of his sleeves and body heat.

"Your not a monster Kagome, your not ugly. Your a beautiful girl who was badly hurt, and didn't handle it good." He whispered softly against her ear while she sobbed against his shoulder "Kami, Don't you realize Kagome...I love you so much...you could never be ugly to me."

She shook her head in denial and InuYasha cupped her face in his hands and pulled back, looking fiercely into her eyes, then he kissed her, soft, sweet and gentle. He pulled back and whispered against her lips.

"You are always beautiful to me, always beautiful."

With a heady gasp they mutually moved to the futon that they had been innocently sharing for weeks. His kimono joined hers on the floor in a soft whisper of silk while his fingers and lips grazed lightly over her skin, neglected in its need for love for so long. Negligence quickly abated when flesh meshed with flesh and two became one. Two souls, kindred spirits lost in a realm pain and anguish, reunited, and mated. He would be her first and only just as she would be his first and only , he overjoyed to find her maidenhood still intact. Later as she lay nestled safely in his arms waiting for sleep to come Kagome tearfully told InuYasha,

"I wouldn't let ...I wanted it to be you."

InuYasha pulled her closer, whispering his love against her neck, and this time Kagome whispered her own back.

"I love you too...I always have..."

* * *

-

* * *

"Nervous?" InuYasha squeezed Kagome's hand as they neared the well, en route to Kagome's first trip to visit her mother. 

"Yeah, pretty bad." Kagome tried to smile but it came out a nervous grimace instead.

"You'll be fine, and I'm with you too." Kagome nodded "Besides, your mother is one tiny old woman, how scary can she be?"

Kagome looked at InuYasha in mock horror "Have you met my mother InuYasha?" They shared a laugh, then jumped together into the well.

Kagome was greeted with hugs and tears, then some yelling. Then more hugs and tears, and more yelling. Deki and Kagome talked late into the afternoon and early evening until finally InuYasha and Kagome decided to spend the night. The next morning Kagome and InuYasha woke to the smell of pancakes frying down stairs.

"Oh no! Deki now you've gone and done it!" she was cursing herself as they came into the kitchen.

"What did u do now Mama?"

"I made all these pancakes and we have no syrup!"

"We'll go get some, the stores only a couple minutes away by InuYasha-mobile."

InuYasha grunted at the new nickname, but gave his consent to playing taxi anyway. They laughed and played in the isles like children, coming up with new lovely dovey nicknames for one another. Kagome had just settled on cuddleducky for InuYasha and she screams when she #& when they heard the voice in the next isle.

"Kami, you weren't kidding, she really does look like hell."

"Guess living on the streets and being a heroin whore does that to a person."

"I still can't believe it, Higurashi has always been a goody goody, so clean her ass squeaked when she walked."

"We all saw her all coked out at Hojo's wedding."

"Higurashi an addict whore...man, she use to be really nice too."

The voices were gone by the time InuYasha reached the other side of the isle, and when he returned to where he had left Kagome she had moved to the checkout. She was all smiles, pretending it wasn't bothering her. InuYasha dreaded the fall out from this, there was going to be one hell of a good screaming match later dragging this out of her.

* * *

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* * *

"I can't get over how good Kagome looks" Deki smiled at InuYasha over her tea "She seems like she is starting to get back to herself" 

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Something bothering you InuYasha?"

"When we went to the store, we overheard some girls talking about Kagome, they called her an "Heroin whore." He looked puzzled.

"You don't know what that is?"

He shook his head

"It's someone, usually a drug addict, who had sexual relations with someone in exchange for heroin."

"I had a feeling that was what it meant. Fucking bitches! Kagome acted like it didn't bother her, she smiling and shit, but...I think she knew who the voices belonged to."

"You think so?"

"I think I know so...cause they seemed a bit familiar to me too."

"Oh damn those girls! Well then, I better go talk with Kagome."

Deki patted InuYasha on the shoulder as she walked past. InuYasha thought about all the progress he and Kagome had made in the past week since their "date" They had taken long walks every night, and Kagome was picking up some. She had started talking a little to Miroku and more to Sango. She had even suggested...

"INUYASHA!!!" Deki screamed from upstairs, sending InuYasha flying up the stairs to the bathroom.

"What?!!"

"The door's locked! She won't let me in!"

InuYasha turned to the door and banged on it. "KAGOME, IM COMING IN!"

With that he kicked the door in.

Kagome lay naked and unconscious on the bathroom floor, the needle still in her arm.

"I'll call an ambulance" Deki went to the phone leaving InuYasha with Kagome. He took a towel from the counter and wrapped Kagome in it and held her in his arms. She was cold, so damn cold.

"Kagome...what the fuck do you think your doing huh?" InuYasha felt tears sting his eyes, his sniffled, but otherwise didn't try to stop them.

"Damn you Kagome...I thought I told you I couldn't live without you! I told you! I told you you stupid fucking bitch! So what the hell are you doing trying to leave me Kagome??!!!! Damn it! I need you!"

He lowered his face so it rested in the crook of her neck.

"Come back Kagome..., please come back... you have to come back...Kagome...I love you,"

"Kagome..."

"Kagome!!"

InuYasha spotted the needle where it still hung in Kagome's arm, he pulled it out and looked at it, it was still partially full.

_You in so much pain . I can help you, I can take your pain away._

**How?**

_Do what she did...put the needle in your arm...put ME in your arm...and push the plunger...I'll do the rest...I'll take you away to a place where you'll never feel pain again._

**It would be nice to never feel pain again.**

_Then let me help you. You need a friend right now, I'm here, I want to help, I'll be your best friend._

Kagome was the best friend I ever had

_You can be with her if I help you_

**What do you mean**

_You want to be with her again, don't you_

**More than anything**

_Then do it, slide the needle in your arm, push the plunger down, and you'll be with Kagome again._

**Who are you?**

_Lets just say I'm an old friend of Kagome's_

**Where did you come from?**

_She forgot about me...but I was still hiding in the linen closet. But she remembered me when she came in here today.  
_

**The Black Dragon.**

_That's one of my names, I got lots of names. So what do ya say...you going for a ride on the crazy train to be with Kagome again or are you just going to be a miserable little pissant the rest of your fuckin life?_

**I loved Kagome and you hurt her.**

InuYasha held the syringe over the tub and pushed the plunger, emptying the contents, then snapped the syringe in half

**"Fuck you, you ain't getting me."**

* * *

**-**

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**-Epilogue**

**-1 Year Later**

"Come on Shippo, were gonna be late" InuYasha growled at the kit

"I'm coming, I'm coming." the kitsune ran from his room looking adorable in dress-up clothes. "Jeeze Papa, you'd think it was a special occasion or something."

"Listen young man, everything changes after today. One last time, are you SURE you want to go through with this?"

"Your kidding right? Move five hundred years in the future? Live as a human? Finally get to know Kagome's Mama? There's only one other thing I'd love more."

InuYasha nodded at Shippo "I know, me too runt boy. Me too. Let's go get this damn wedding over with."

* * *

-

* * *

At last Miroku and Sango were man and wife, a bit unconventionally, Sango held their daughter Kagome during the ceremony, perhaps hoping to make up for the fact that their beloved real Kagome was unable to be there. 

They stayed for as long as they could bear the small party the village held for Miroku and Sango, then they stood by the well and made their wish. InuYasha and Shippo, father and son, both now human and oddly resembling one another finally stood in the well house at Higurashi shrine.

"Papa...did it work?"

"You tell me runt."

"Well you look human to me."

"You look pretty human to me too, but your taller."

Shippo looked down and noticed that his hakema that had been perfect before , were now about three inches too short.

"Cool!"

"Well, we better get going. You nervous?"

"A little"

"Well, there's no reason to be. She's a human, just like us. She don't bite or nothing."

"I know, but what if..."

"InuYasha!" Deki stood in the door way, her arms open. InuYasha hurried his pace and walked into them, accepting the motherly hug.

"Deki, this is Shippo."

"Pleased to meet you Higurashi-sama"

"Oh, pish posh. You can call me Deki, or, since Kagome was kind of your Mama, you could call me Grandma if you like."

"Grandma? Really?" Shippo's eye's shined with excitement

"Of course! Now, how about some cookies?"

"May I Papa?"

"Yeah, go ahead..I'm gonna..." Deki nodded and lead Shippo off to the kitchen.

InuYasha when into what had been Jii room and closed the door and walked to the large window. He bent down and kissed his mate softly on the lips, then pulled a chair up to the bed.

"Well, we did it Kagome, Shippo and I are both here now to stay. You notice the hair? Yeah, were both human too." He laughed a little then sat forward and picked a towel up from the tray by her bed to wipe off a line of drool that ran down her cheek.

"So, from now on, that means you put up with me harassing you twenty-four seven about that range of motion you love so much"

In the three months since Kagome had come out of her coma there had been little to no improvement, the doctors told them not to expect any. But then again, the doctors had told them she would never come out of the coma either.

InuYasha wasn't giving up on Kagome.

Ever.

He loved her too damn much.

_END _

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The story you have just read is obviously fictitious, but it is true for thousands of people across the world, young and old, male and female, gay and straight, educated and uneducated, rich and poor...drug abuse doesn't play favorites. 

Teenagers...if you have a friend who is doing drugs, you do them NO FAVORS by covering for their drug use. Tell a parent, or if nothing else, tell your parent and ask them to tell their parent. Particularly dangerous is the frightening increase in "Huffing" chemicals, and this really particularly stupid dumbass stunt known as "Dusting" that can kill you the first time, the second time, or any time after.

Drug and Alcohol abuse is scary stuff my friends and I hope I have painted a fairly realistic picture with "Black Dragon" I had originally planned a happy ending, but the truth is, so few heroin addicts actually have happy endings. So then I decided to have Kagome die, but thought, well, thats not very dramatic... You may ask why InuYasha didn't use to jewel to wish Kagome well. That goes to my wish to paint a realistic story. A average drug overdose , you wont have a shikon no tama to repair the brain damage caused, so I used the tama to enable Shippo and InuYasha to help Kagome's mother care for her, and as I can't stand unhappy endings, I just had to leave that little bitty ray of hope.

I hope you have enjoyed this story, well as much as you can enjoy something this dark and angst-y, and will check out some of my other stories!!

Mitsukai no Suno--CJ

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	10. The Final Scroll II Q and A

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**-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi**

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**Hey, I'm back! I've been getting a lot of interesting comments in PM's and reviews! WOW! Not one single hate message !! You guys were way less understanding when I had a bomb blow up Sesshomaru, his kid, and Kagome and InuYasha's unborn kid in Loss a year ago! LOL**

**Anyway, I've been getting some questions and comment's, so, hopefully this will help answer and explain some of this.**

**Many hugs and Puppy Luvs! **

**I'm off to write some COMEDY!**

**Mitsukai no Suno--CJ**

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**Black Dragon**

**The Final Scroll II**

**Q&A**

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**-It's so unthinkable, Kagome on drugs?**

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Kagome had many factors working against her. The biggest being that Kagome's first taste of heroin was forced on her by Tek, the man who introduced her to drugs that she met at a party at the university.  
Kagome was already drinking heavily, drugs were a next step for her. She was crushed by Sota's death, coming so soon after the loss of the life that she had come to love so much in the Sengoku Jidai, with the loss of the ones she loved, who were now literally dead to her, she had lost everything that was important to her, and she had lost InuYasha, the man she loved desperately. Tek had shown her a way to be rid of the pain. Kagome had been through so much for years, the pain of InuYasha and Kikyo, fighting yokai,constantly being in danger, being kidnapped, having her soul stolen...everyone has a breaking point. Kagome found hers.

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- **Is Heroin Withdrawal really that bad?**

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It is worse. I had planned on writing it chapter by day. As in each chapter would have been a day of withdrawal, but after writing the first day, I just couldn't do it. It was too draining. I have never dealt with heroin use, or withdrawal, but I have dealt with other drugs and this was an extremely depressing and difficult project for me.

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**-I have a hard time seeing Kagome doing any of the things you had her doing when she was on drugs...she's too principled.**

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Drugs go in my friends, principles go out. As I said at the beginning of every chapter, drugs change people into something ugly. Even perky princesses. That's why I wanted to use Kagome for this story and why I used the nice dreams for prologues to emphasize the drastic changes. As the story progressed into withdrawal I changed the dreams into ugly nightmares to be symbolic for the fact that there is nothing nice, nothing pleasant about that stage of recovery. The memory I used in the final scroll of Kagome's first trip through the well was meant to give a feeling of coming full circle. Kagome's journey with InuYasha beginning and ending in a sense in tragedy.

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-Wasn't it a bit soon to have them end up in bed together?**

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Perhaps...perhaps not.

I felt that they were two people who were desperately in need of the feeling of being loved. Considering the brutality she allowed with her body in order to get drugs, Kagome needed to know what it felt like to be touched with love, by someone who loved her as desperately as InuYasha did. She needed to feel beautiful, like a beautiful young woman instead of a machine that performed sex acts in return for a needle filled with dope. Remember that she always dissociated herself when she was having sex with Gineo, her dealer, because she couldn't stand the pain, yet at the same time she wanted the pain as her punishment for killing Sota. She had desperately held onto this one small piece of herself, her technical virginity, saving it for InuYasha, on the small prayer that he might save her one last time. And she held onto that for weeks, and it kept her alive and sustained her.  
For InuYasha, he believed he had screwed up every bodies lives with his decision to seal the well. Despite the fact that his intentions had been purely for Kagome's well being, he blamed himself for every thing down to the last sex act she had performed to get her last fix. It killed him to see her standing there, so painfully thin, her body still showing signs of the abuse men had done to her , that she had allowed them to do to her, and she was blaming herself for what he believed was his fault. When Kagome started calling herself an ugly monster and saying she couldn't and wouldn't be with him, InuYasha got scared of losing her again. He felt a desperate need to show her how beautiful she was to him, and his natural response to that was to take her as his mate for life, an unbreakable bond. Though I guess I could have made that clearer, it was pretty vague as I was nervous about writing that part, I didn't want it to even qualify as a lime.

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-Hey, you promised us a happy ending!**

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Yeah...I kinda caught a lot of people with the ending. They were sure Kagome was going to be dead after the scene in the bathroom and that InuYasha was going to become the next heroin addict or die outright from ODing on the same dragon that Kagome used. But thing is, InuYasha is not a stupid guy, not to say that Kagome is mind you. But Kagome had different factors against her as I already said. I knew that InuYasha would tell the dragon to fuck off. There had to be some victory. But I wanted to show the temptation to InuYasha, the longing to be with Kagome, the pain. and it was an opening to explain where Kagome got the drugs... (Likely, InuYasha was looking around him and figured out because the bathroom was all torn apart like she had been looking for something desperately.)  
And, Speaking as a writer, it was an interesting as hell challenge to get into the mind of heroin and attempt to think for it, I couldn't resist doing it one more time...it was to be honest, the only sorta fun part of this project. LOL  
As for Kagome...To be honest, I went around and around...I considered everything from HIV, to AIDS, to get busted trying to buy drugs, to her getting shot, stabbed, etc etc etc..finally I decided that she needed to die of an OD.  
It wasn't until I was halfway through writing the epilogue that I decided to have her in a persistent vegetative state. I wasn't very clear I guess. Her condition is that she is awake and aware of what is going on around her, but she can't speak, has very little movement, she can see what is happening, follow people somewhat with her eyes and recognize them, she has no control of her bodily functions, she does breathe on her own.  
So much of fanfiction is all or nothing. I thought it was time someone left a little to the middle of the road.

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**Why didn't InuYasha use the Jewel to save Kagome?**

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To be realistic in the important part of the story. People who OD on drugs don't have a magic jewel to save them. But, I thought I could use it to symbolize the sacrifices the people who love them have to make to take care of them, the things they give up and the hoops they have to jump through, like InuYasha and Shippo giving up their Yokai heritage.

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**-You left a tiny ray of hope...will there be a sequel?**

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NO! NO! NO! LOL

And if anyone starts bugging me to write a sequel I swear I will write one where after Kagome's mother dies, they bury her and after the funeral InuYasha smothers Kagome with a pillow then runs off with HoJo who he has been secretly been having a love affair with for twenty years while wearing polyester suits and going commando while Shippo who is also gay is shacking up with both Sesshomaru and Jaken!

Seriously, This one was difficult and depressing enough to write, I don't think I could do it again. I desperately need to write some fun stuff for awhile...as the above should prove.

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